A Pirate's Life for Me
by M0M3NTAI
Summary: All Oreo ever wanted was to explore and meet interesting people. How he ended up forming a pirate crew to find the great One Piece, well, he wasn't exactly sure, but damn it all, he was going to have fun being with these crazy people and their crazy dreams on this crazy adventure. Needless to say, a pirate crew without a captain was probably a bad idea. (Check bio for SYOC forms!)
1. Two Children

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Author's Note**

Hello all! Welcome to yet another OC story (glory, I need to stop with these... ahaha). Since my One Piece addiction has just hit an all time high after finally catching up with the manga and anime, I feel a little deprived that I only get to get an update once a week, so I've decided that I want to do a story that while not including the characters of One Piece, it rather follows the themes of it, because I find it so beautiful that I can't help but want to use these themes to further what little writing skill I actually have haha. It's also just set in the One Piece world. This story is basically just a way for me to explore society's many problems, as well as myths, legends, and basically just the weird wonders of our world and to do a bit of soul searching, for my character's adventure is my mind's, since I have this strange idea that my mind can have far more better adventures than my body can. Maybe it will help me with sorting out my shit, or maybe it'll make me delve even further into the mess my mind has made me, we'll just have to see.

Also, this won't be in any sense _realistic _because it's my escape from reality. It's a fan-fic based off of an anime about pirates, I mean, can I really make it realistic? I much prefer to think the impossible and find ways to break all sense of reality because that's what I just like to do. Anyway, I suspect it to be overly long and maybe complicated, with a little bit of everything in between since while I have sort of _arcs _(so far there are 13 arcs planned) to this story, yet I don't quite have an ending in mind so I don't know how long it'll take me to get there.

It's rated T for language and mentions of semi-adult things that most people on here should be okay with. Maybe it will go to M at a later stage because, at some point down the line, the theme will eventually get a tad dark and I'm not good with rating my stories since I hardly get affected by anything, so if it ever hits an M rating, it would just be to play it safe. I obviously am not the great Oda, so I don't own One Piece and any of the character's in this story (not that they're featured anyway)

So on with the first chapter of the introduction arc!

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter One ~ Two Children<strong>_

Footsteps pattered along the paved walkway that led up to a couple of fields down south of a small island. The sun shone on the backs of the two children that ran along the path, racing each other to see who would reach the fields first.

The one child was a young boy, probably around twelve years old. He was thin, dark-skinned from the tan he permanently had from hours spent outside and had short, black hair that spiked up since it wasn't long enough to go down. He wore simple clothes; an old, grey t-shirt with a tear down one of the sleeves, brown knee-length shorts and old, brown boots.

The other child was a girl and looked to perhaps be around a year younger than the boy that ran beside her. She was also tanned, but had very fine, light brown hair that while being chopped untidily until her shoulders, it was also brushed to the extent that there were no knots present. Her clothes consisted of a white, long-sleeved shirt that had grey stripes, blue shorts and old, black boots with colourfully striped socks that stuck out above them.

They stopped for a few seconds to catch their breath, but then continued along the paths towards the fields at the south of the island.

The fields were basically just plains of grass that had yet to be used for agriculture or buildings, and it was the main playing area for the children around the island. There weren't many children though, for the island was small and the whole population probably amounted to under fifty people, most of them being adults.

These two children, however, were not at all concerned with what was happening on their island. Oh no, they were more curious about what was happening outside of the island. They were adventure seekers and weren't content with the slow life of the farming island. All the people did was work, eat, sleep, and then repeat. It was obviously very boring for two youngsters who were overly curious about everything.

That's why they went to the fields every day. It was the highest vantage spot on the island, and they were able to see things at a much further distance, as well as see ships come and go after they had collected the farmed goods that were constantly being produced on the island.

The girl stopped running again, her head cocked to the side in the direction of shouting. The boy looked behind him and he immediately heard the yelling.

"Neh, what do you think's happening?" The girl asked, looking at her companion with wide, green eyes.

"We better check it out," the boy replied, already walking towards the source of the noise, which was presumably just over the hill to their left.

A hand that had grabbed his arm stopped him however.

The boy looked back at his companion with a hard expression, and he whacked her hand away. She gave no reply but slowly brought her smacked hand to her mouth and pointed up her index finger over her lips, ultimately reminding him to be silent.

He grinned at her then, happy that she complied with his wishes to see what was going on without much of a fight.

She usually fought with his decisions over everything and, damn, it was annoying. He always had to remind her that he was the older one between them, therefore had superiority over her in every way. And that he was the man, so she had to do what he said.

But she never listened to him. She had this certain stubbornness, that while it somehow got them a couple of work-free meals at the local restaurant in town, it still managed to piss him off. When he said 'jump' she retorted that he had legs and could do it himself. When he wanted to be captain in a game of _Pirates, _she simply stated that he was too stupid to do so and declared herself as the Captain with him being unable to do much about it. She just didn't bend to anyone's commands.

So when there were those few times her stubbornness didn't go against him in every way possible, he actually thought that she was decent enough. But it wasn't like he had much of a choice but to be friends with her since she was the only other kid in the town, and they were neighbours, so they saw each other every day even when he didn't want to.

The boy led her off of the well-worn path to the left and they stopped at the base of the hill to crawl over it. Once they had their heads over the crest of the hill, they immediately stopped because there were three people below them. They were too preoccupied with their business to even notice the curious children.

Two of the men were dressed in the official uniform of the Sovereignty, while the third was a simple, old man who the boy recognized as the man who had a small vineyard at the edge of town; down by the west side of the small island.

The Sovereignty was a group of people who were basically the 'freedom fighters' of the island, since it was not ruled by government rules. It was a solely independent island that made its money from farming and selling their products to other islands around them. All the people who came here were either brought by other members of the community who thought they needed a little help in life, or who were being chased by the marines. This island offered a second chance to people who desperately needed it.

The one member of the Sovereignty laughed, almost manically, as the old man flinched.

"You don't have what we asked of you?" The second member asked, his lip curling up in disgust.

He would have been good-looking if not for the cold oceans that were his eyes and the hard, thin lines creasing his forehead and making his seem older than he appeared. He was young, the boy knew, as he had been only recently declared as a man by the elders, therefore leaving only him and his companion as the two kids of the village. They all used to play together three years ago, where the boy had only been nine, the girl eight, and the member had only been thirteen.

The old man shook his head, and was merely answered with a hard knock to his jaw as the second member flat-out punched him. The first one laughed again and reached out to grab the other member's shoulders to pull him back, and was almost elbowed in the process since this other man wasn't backing down.

"Why is Ariel doing this?" The girl whispered; her soft voice only heard by the boy. He tilted his head her way and saw her kneading the ground below her uncomfortably with her long fingers. He opted not to reply and turned his head back to the scene before him.

"Chill out, man." The first member laughed again and forcefully shoved Ariel backwards, unbalancing him and causing him to land heavily on his back. The member turned to the old man and casually strung his arm over his frail shoulders. The old man nearly buckled under the added weight. "Hey, hey." The member said smoothly, "this island is one of second chances, isn't it?"

The old man nodded uncertainly, obviously feeling both anxious and uncomfortable in the presence of this particular member.

If the boy remembered correctly, this member's name was Red, though he wasn't quite sure if it was just a simple nickname from his fiery red hair that stuck out at all angles, or if that was his actual name.

Red slung his head back towards Ariel, who was up and about after his slightly embarrassing fall, and motioned him closer.

"We've already given you a second chance though... Do we dare to give you a third?" Red asked casually, his voice never losing its overall smoothness.

The old man then squared his shoulders and shrugged off Red's arms. His facial expression was brighter than before, as if he had just figured out a solution to his current predicament.

He looked Red in the eye, and stated. "My second chance is over. Do with me what you will. I am too old to deal with this insanity any longer."

Ariel stayed silent, his cold eyes glaring from Red to the old man and back. Red no longer had a smile on his face; instead, he was chewing on his lower lip in thought. He wasn't quite expecting the old man to be so... _okay _with their supposed decision to not give him a third chance. He was expecting to be begged for the extra opportunity to prove his worth – he was actually hoping for it – and now that it didn't happen, he was disappointed. This little deal they had set up was brilliant and he profited greatly from it, but now the old man wanted out, so who was he to defy him?

Red reached behind him and pulled out a small, simple pistol.

At the sight of the gun, the two children stiffened, and after the initial shock, the boy managed to pinch the girl's arm for her to snap back from the little trance she had been in. She frowned at him as he started descending the hill, and almost let out a yelp of protest when he grabbed her leg and pulled her down along with him. She managed to hold it in, but was still dragged down the hill.

When they reached the bottom, she kicked him as soon as she got to her feet, and he bent quickly at the sudden pain to his shins.

"Dammit," he groaned, rubbing the pained area on his leg.

The girl huffed, but before she could do anything else, a gunshot sounded.

The noise was loud enough to make a couple of shocked birds flee from the trees next to the well worn path, and the sound alone managed to freeze the two children.

They gave each other wide eyes, and a silent agreement passed between them that they should probably get away.

And they both just ran.


	2. Oreo, The Cabin Boy

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

_**Chapter Two ~ Oreo, The Cabin Boy**_

A few days passed since the incident with the old, vineyard owner. He was proclaimed to having some sort of accident by the Sovereignty, which lead to his untimely death. The two children of the village did know better, but they also knew not to say anything of it if they wished to still live their comfortable lives.

They had watched and waited, but it appeared that neither Ariel nor Red knew that they had been present at the old man's death sentence.

"Do you think they all do that?" The girl asked one morning.

The two children were sitting on a couple of crates next to the harbour, waiting for the newest ship to finish docking so that they could talk to the people there. It had become a routine with them and was just a form of entertainment that kept them busy on Tuesdays and Saturdays, when the ships arrived to export goods. They had made use of their time by watching a man in a Sovereignty uniform go about with a security check on all the newly arrived boats.

"Do what?" the boy asked almost lazily as he shielded his eyes from the early morning sun.

"You know," she then started to whisper, "...kill when they're not happy."

The boy frowned now, and his brown eyes squinted. "If they did, they would be no different from the Marines. And no one here likes the Marines, so I'm thinking that maybe just Red and Ariel do that."

"What do you think would happen if the island found out?" She asked.

"Not our place to say, _Clary_." The boy replied, using her nickname with an irritated scowl now that he was starting to get annoyed with all her questioning.

She just huffed, "What can we say then, huh? It feels like we can't do anything around here." She shouldered him, and he almost fell off the crates. "Don't say this. Don't do that. Don't look up nor down. Don't do nothing but work on the farm."

The boy sighed then. "You know we've had this talk a million times before-"

"Hey, you kids!" A voice called out and they both looked to see a young man, probably just about to reach adulthood, walking up to them.

He was dressed well for someone who just came from an exporting ship, with a green collared shirt that had the top button undone, black trousers and black closed shoes. A black hat hid most of the dark mop you would call his hair, and his face did seem strangely familiar, but they both knew they had never seen this boy before.

"You ain't much older than we are, sir." The boy replied cheekily.

When he got close enough, the young almost-man simply bowed, tipping his hat forwards in the process. "My apologies then. I was just wondering what the name of this here island is."

"You came on the export ship, didn't you?" the girl retorted, giving him a suspicious glare. "You should know."

"Ah, but I am a simple cabin boy for all the older men, you see. They don't tell me much."

"Oh, well then this is Sandleu Island-"

"Don't tell him!" The girl immediately slapped her friend over the head before he could say much else. "He's suspicious!"

"Of what?" He moaned, rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't you see? He's dressed too fancy to be a cabin boy."

"So? This export ship goes from here to Grehd Island; one of the richest islands this side of West Blue. Maybe they just have nicely dressed cabin boys."

"But he's-"

"Please continue to talk about me as if I'm not standing in front of you," the young man interrupted the girl, silencing them both. He rubbed his temple for a few seconds before continuing. "Look, my name's Oreo, and I was wondering if you two would be so kind as to guide me around the town. I got a few coins from this job if you want money for it."

"...Islanders don't have to deal with money, so we would have no use of it," the boy explained after a few seconds of awkward silence.

The girl stood up and brushed her pants to get rid of some of the dust from the crates, "but we'll show you around anyway, just 'cause you talk so nice."

"Oh, thank you." Oreo nodded his head, standing back to let them both pass.

"I'm Clarity," the girl stated, then pointed to her friend, "and this here is Kale. We're neighbours."

"Well, it's a pleasure meeting you... I think."

As the three of them were heading out of the harbour, they were stopped by the Sovereignty member doing the security checks.

He stopped Oreo with a hand over his chest and asked, "Sorry sir, but which boat do you come from?"

Oreo tipped his hat and turned to point in between the two boats that had just arrived. "That one. I am but a humble cabin boy with a mission to get food for the sailors. So, if you don't mind-"

"Just a second please," the man replied with exasperation, "I heard there'd been a stowaway on one of the ships there. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it?"

"Nope. I never heard of a stowaway on the ship I was on."

"Really now?" The man asked, to which Oreo nodded with a serious expression. "Well, I'll let you go for now, but if you don't come back, I'll know."

"You'll know what, _sir?"_ Oreo asked, feigning complete innocence with a touch of annoyance on the side.

The man simply smirked and walked off, whistling a merry tune.

"Don't worry about him," Kale said, tugging on the older boy's sleeve. "You said you wanted to see the town?"

* * *

><p>The children then spent the rest of the morning showing Oreo around town, and they eventually stopped at a restaurant for lunch.<p>

"So this island really has no currency for the people who live here?" Oreo asked as they sat down at one of the tables.

The restaurant itself was simple and homey, although not all that big. There were at the most five tables seated inside with four chairs for each table, and then a bar area where people could just sit and get a drink. The people who owned it were very nice, especially to Kale and Clarity.

It was rumoured that the owners had always wanted children of their own but the woman, Hilary, had always been unable to conceive, so when children walked in their restaurant, they were treated as well as, if not better, than any adult.

"Well, we sometimes have to work a little" Clarity mused, "but other than that, everything here is for everyone."

"How do you import things, then? I mean, if you have no currency, then how can this island afford all that it ships?"

"The island trades for everything. They get farming goods, we get other cool stuff." Kale explained, knowing a little more about this than Clarity since his mother helps with the trading business, and feeling a little smug about it.

"That's interesting..."

Before Oreo could ask any more questions, an old lady walked up to their table.

"Who's your new friend?" she asked, nodding her head at Oreo.

The woman was probably in her late fifties, with pale ginger hair that frizzed outwards. She wore simple clothes, with a white apron and half her hair stuck in a hair net while the other half just ran wild.

"He's a cabin boy from the Ghrehd ship," Clarity responded immediately.

"First time here?" When Oreo nodded, she looked confused. "Strange... you look so similar, I swear I've seen you somewhere before."

"No ma'am. I'm new to being a cabin boy, and I've never been to this island."

"Well, since it's your first time here, you can eat on the house." She smiled then, but there was something strange in her smile. The old woman just couldn't shake off the nostalgic feeling she got from just looking at this boy.

The children all made their orders, which Hilary took to the kitchen to prepare their food.

"She's sweet," Kale said, looking at the old woman as she left their table.

"Oh, so you like the older women huh?" Clarity announced, wiggling her eyebrows and making Kale's cheeks a dim red.

"What? No, go away!"

"Good." And she straightened her back. "You can only like me anyway." Kale could only sputter out a few non-existent words before she continued. "We're already married after all."

"We're not!" Kale shouted, his face flush now. "No one in their right mind would ever marry you."

"You should consider yourself lucky." Clarity stated, giving him a serious look.

"Arg!" Kale shouted and pointed at her, "_You _should consider _yourself_ lucky. I'm a real catch."

"Yeah, a catch good enough just to use as bait maybe." She snorted.

"You're impossible!"

As their argument became back ground music for Oreo, he looked outside the window to his left, a little lost in thought.

He saw a man dressed in brown, mud-caked overalls, but he looked so incredibly happy. He was just walking along the street, but he looked as if this were the best thing he could possibly be doing with his life. This whole island was intriguing, from the way these people lived to just how happy they seemed, so he was kind of beginning to understand a mystery that he had been faced with from a very young age.

He turned back to his companions to see Clarity holding Kale in a sort of head-lock, yelling at him to admit that she was the only girl he would ever love, and he was downright refusing to even think of such a horror.

"Hey," Oreo started, "why is everyone so happy here?"

They stopped their little tussle at his question, both freezing to think about it.

Clarity let go of Kale's head and sat back down in her chair. "Do you know the story of this island?"

"Honestly, I wish I knew more than I currently do."

"Well, this island has a second name; The Island of Second Chances. Everyone who comes here is offered a second chance at life. It's an option to start things over, make new friends, and live life simply."

Kale then continued on after she paused. "All the people living here have been through a lot, whether it's from their family, or the government, or just that their lives were in ruins. I think that the people here are so happy because they get to do what they want with barely any restrictions... do you understand?"

Oreo put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. "I'm afraid I don't quite follow."

Before the two children could go on explaining more about the island to try make some sense, Hilary arrived with their food.

She placed each of the orders in front of them, giving Oreo his food last.

"Say, how old are you, boy?" She asked as she placed the plate in front of him.

"Fifteen," he replied, cocking his head to the side in confusion as to why she would ask such a thing.

Hilary's face just lit up at this new piece of information, and what she had thought while she had been cooking their food had a strong probability of actually being the truth. "Well, it's no wonder why you look so familiar then," she exclaimed. Then, she leant in closer to whisper in his ear, "Be careful about what you do, son. You'd be making a big fuss."

Oreo froze in the process of lifting up his fork and Hilary let out a little chuckle before leaving the children to their own devices.

"Looks like Hilary prefers Oreo over you anyway, Kale. I've got nothing to worry about." Clarity said cheerfully, completely oblivious to how shocked Oreo seemed.

"Shut up!"


	3. Oreo Not Really a Cabin Boy

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

_**Oreo; Not Really a Cabin Boy**_

It was another early morning at the harbour for Kale and Clarity as they wanted to say bye to the new friend they had made the previous day. After they had finished their lunch, they departed ways since Oreo said he had something to do and the two children had spent the rest of the day at the fields; just talking and playing games.

They knew that the transport ships were leaving that morning, so they thought it would be nice to meet Oreo again and ask if he was ever going to come back to the island.

Upon arriving there, however, they found that the ships were already done with preparing for departure so they wouldn't be able to say bye to their new friend. They were disappointed since it was great having another child in the town, even if he was four/five years older than them, and they had been hoping that, just this once, the ships wouldn't leave the very next morning.

But alas, there was work that had to get done, so the best that they could do was make their way to the fields to wave the ongoing ships a hearty farewell. And they did just that.

As the two of them watched until the ships were mere specks out on the sea, Kale finally turned to Clarity and pulled on her sleeve.

"He's gone now. Come on, I've thought of a new game."

Clarity turned to him then and shook her head. "Sorry, I promised my mom and dad that I would help fish for tonight. You can come with though, if you want."

"Aw, you know I'm no good with fishing."

"Just come and watch then. You don't need to help." She tried to persuade him, because in all honesty, she would like the company. It got a little boring with no one there.

They started walking back along the well-worn path while Kale replied. "I dunno..."

"Well, fine then." Clarity snapped before walking faster.

Kale let her, and just shoved his hands in his pockets like he didn't care. It only took a few, long minutes for him to go into protec0tive mode, because low and behold, a figure jumped out from behind some trees and ran right to the middle of the path.

Kale sprinted to his friend's side, and didn't even relax when he saw just who it was who had stopped before them.

It was Ariel, the Sovereignty member who had been with Red as they both interrogated –and eventually shot- the old vineyard owner.

His icy, blue eyes regarded the two almost lazily before he asked. "And where are you two coming from?"

It was strange, Kale thought, that the man in front of them was only a year older than Oreo. While Oreo had the look of a child who had yet to grow into his head, Ariel was one who let his head grow too big for his age. The comparison between the two was startling, and he couldn't help but wonder just where the Ariel who played with them a few years ago had run off to.

"The fields," Clarity stated, not even blinking as she made to walk past him. "And now I'm going fishing, if you wanted to know."

Ariel moved his hand to stop her, and Kale immediately felt his own skin crawl as he touched her. "All by yourself?" he asked, giving Kale a dirty look.

"Yeah. D'you got a problem with that?" she swatted his hand away as it were an annoying fly on a sweltering summer's day.

"A little lady can't go off on her own. I think I'll join you." An arrogant smirk was plastered all over his face.

"Ah no. I'm actually going with her." Kale announced, making his way to step in between them. Clarity just shoved him away, not wanting him to get involved.

Ariel laughed then. "Oh glory, you two are hilarious. You've gotta learn to respect your elders, missy." He stated, flicking her on the nose. The playfulness was lost in the cold depths of his eyes and the frown lines on his forehead.

"You've gotta learn to check your surroundings." Clarity snarled, "You never know who might be watching."

With that, Ariel just froze, and then narrowed his eyes menacingly after a few seconds.

"And we're going." Kale huffed, taking a hold of Clarity's hand almost possessively.

They then left the older man to contemplate her words and as soon as they were out of sight, they started running to get as far away from him as possible. They didn't know that boy anymore. It felt like they had never had a friend named Ariel.

* * *

><p>They both arrived at Clarity's house fuming.<p>

"The nerve of that guy!" Clarity yelled as she went through the front door.

"What guy?" A voice interrupted her and they both looked up to see her dad standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking at the two children with curiosity.

Now, her dad was a strongly built man. His forearms were muscled from years of sailing the seas and his shoulders were square and broad. He was also very tall, always having to be careful about doorways because there was a possibility he could hit his head on the top of the door frame. He had dark hair that was shaven short and stubble that covered the entire bottom half of his face. His eyes were hazel and bright on most days with suppressed amusement. He was an overall happy man, who literally lived for his family.

His daughter stopped short at the sight of him, and she shook her head quickly. "Oh, no one."

"Why is it that I can't find it in myself to believe a word you just said?" He asked, crossing his arms and leaning on the door frame.

"Because you're weird." She shot back, then turned to her friend. "Even Kale thinks so."

"N-no, sir-"

But he just laughed. "Stop making Kale all nervous, honey. You would swear I abuse him every day since he's always so frightened whenever I'm near him."

"He's just a wimp." She retorted.

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself. Weren't we going to go fishing?" She asked, immediately changing the subject.

Kale slumped forward, "Do I really have to come with?"

"Yeah, you said you were." She then smiled crookedly at him, "or were you just being jealous?"

"You flatter yourself, wifey." He replied instantly, a little flushed, but her new teasing ways were easy to get accustomed to.

"Woah woah," Yukra, Clarity's father, interrupted them. "Wifey?"

"We're married now." Clarity insisted, to which Kale made motions of strangling her behind her back as she turned to talk to her father.

"And you didn't even ask my permission." Yukra tutted, giving the poor boy a disapproving look.

"We're not married!" He insisted, grasping at his own hair in frustration before he could literally strangle his friend.

"You keep telling yourself that, dearest." Clarity smirked at him, "but we're wasting time here. Be a good husband and come with for a day of fishing."

"Only if you stop insisting that we're married." Kale negotiated, already heading towards the kitchen to get their bait. Yukra moved out of the doorway to let them through.

Clarity just sighed. "You ruin my fun." She whimpered as she followed.

* * *

><p>When Kale finally opened his front door to go inside his home, he couldn't help but sigh with relief. The day they had spent fishing was taxing and exhausting, but he at least got to keep a fish for dinner when Clarity had caught one too many by accident.<p>

He went to the kitchen and deposited the fish in the bottom of the fridge, making sure there was some ice there to keep it as fresh as it could be until his mother got home. He wiped his brow and made his way to his room, wondering –and not for the first time- why he was the damned one to get stuck with someone like Clarity. He got tired just from the thought of her.

He found his bedroom door closed, which was odd in itself, and what was stranger was that there was some sort of shuffling sound emitting from the other side of the wood. He closed his hand over the knob and turned it slowly, leaning into the door to open it slightly.

The shuffling noise stopped as the sound of his creaking door rang throughout the house and Kale poked his head inside his room, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. He opened the door fully and stepped inside, suspecting that it must be some sort of animal that got locked up in his room by accident. He noticed his window was open, so anything could have climbed in.

He made his way over to the desk and tried to light the candle there to get some light in the place. He got out a box of matches from one of the drawers in his desk and lit it quickly before moving to light the candle.

Just as the flame ignited on the little rope sticking out from the top of the candle, his door slammed shut behind him and hands were on his mouth before he could do anything. The box of matches fell to the floor and Kale tried to pry the hands off of his face, but he wasn't strong enough to do so.

"Shh, don't freak out," a voice said behind him.

"Mhhm mmm, mhhhh!" Kale tried to say 'how the hell can I not freak out?', but it didn't quite work out for him.

His body was turned around, and Kale got the shock of a life time to see that the person holding his mouth closed was actually Oreo.

"Mhhm?" He tried asking, and shook his head vigorously to get Oreo's hands off of his mouth. After he succeeded and the other boy's hands fell to his side, he whispered, "I thought you left on the ships?"

"I can't do that."

"But you came on the ships, and you're the cabin boy." Kale was just really confused now.

"You would believe such lies?" Oreo asked, his eyes widening. "I just used the ships to get here."

"What?" Kale sputtered after a momentary pause. "Why?"

"I'm trying to find out a truth, actually."

"What kind of truth?"

"The kind that's hard to find."

When a confused stare met Oreo's face, his hands went to his pockets to retrieve a paper. He stepped forwards to the desk to get into the candle light and placed the paper so that Kale could see it clearly.

"Is... is that a picture of Clarity's father?" Kale asked, squinting his eyes as if he couldn't quite believe it.

It was a picture of Yukra, but he looked much younger. There was no stubble on his face, and he wasn't as well-built, but the strange thing that almost made him unrecognizable was his defeated stance. It was not the happy-go-lucky kind of figure that had been painted into Kale's mind since he had first met the old, happy man.

"It's a picture of _my _father." Oreo stated.

Kale stared at the older boy next to him, his mouth open and gaping. But the more he stared the more he came to realize that there were some startling features that were similar in both him and Yukra.

First and foremost – which Kale wanted to punch himself because he had noticed this upon first meeting Oreo – was that they had almost the same eyes. From colour to shape, when he looked into Oreo's eyes, he saw a younger Yukra's. It explained why he had, at first glance, seemed so familiar.

"But... how?" Kale could only stutter as he tried to process all of this.

"My mom saved this picture for me. When she found out she was dying, she gave it to me so I could find him when she left so I wasn't alone. But I never thought he would have another family." Oreo stated, looking at the picture.

He wanted to crumple it in his hands, watch his father's face disfigure as his fingers crushed the paper. He wanted to hold it over the candle so that it would slowly burn away into nothing but perhaps a distant dream; one that would only have a sprinkle of existence, like the ash speckles left over.

But he also wanted to keep staring at it, to carve the image in his mind and make up for the fact that he had been fatherless his whole life. This image had been his hope since his mother died. It had created this thought in the back of his mind that showed itself when he was facing one of his darker days that, hey, he wasn't alone. He still had his father.

It hurt to find out his hope was also the hope of another's.

Perhaps he was just selfish, but that realization wasn't enough a good enough remedy to heal this fresh wound.

Oreo flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, now." Kale paused to think of the right words to say. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, I can't just go up to him now that I know he has another family." Oreo retorted, taking a step back to become out of reach, "but I can't not let him know of the pain he caused my mom from leaving her."

There was silence then, and it was only interrupted by the crinkle of paper as Oreo folded up the picture and placed it in his pocket underneath his shirt.

"Stay here and just think about what you want to do." Kale suggested then.

Oreo then sat on the floor and hugged his knees, not even daring to look up at the younger boy. Kale went to his cupboards after a few minutes of silence and began to find clothes for both himself and his friend.

"You know..." Oreo started, prompting Kale to turn around and face him. "I do not wish to be a burden, but I'm uncertain about which is the right path to take."

"My momma says that there isn't ever a wrong path, so I don't think that you have to worry."

Before he could even find the words to reply, a woman's voice called out as they heard a door swinging open.

"Kale! Where are you, kid?" The voice called and Kale then quickly handed Oreo some clothes before going to his door and sticking his head through the open doorway.

"Right here, momma!" He yelled down the hallway and even waved when his mother looked up after placing her shoes by the front door.

She was a very slim woman, who looked older than she should have. Her skin had crinkled and her hair had greyed before its time, so all that was left was a woman who was presumed to be a grandmother instead of a mother.

The woman loosened the scarf around her neck and pulled it off, exposing a scar that Kale didn't ever fancy seeing.

It was all enflamed and scarred where fair skin should have been. It spoke of a time when all there was to the woman's life was fighting, chaos and regret, and the scars were the only things that spoke; she was as silent as the space between the sky and the stars.

She placed the scarf over the couch before going up to her son and hugged him tightly when she got close enough. "Have you had a good day?"

Kale pulled away from her, a little embarrassed, and nodded. "Yeah. I made a new friend, actually." He then took her arm and led her inside his room. She stopped when she saw Oreo pulling one of Kale's newly cleaned shirts over his head. "This is Oreo, Momma,"

"Where did he come from?" She asked as if that stranger wasn't even standing there in front of her. "Is he that stowaway that the Sovereignty have been looking for. I swear, if you've been hid-"

"Don't worry!" Kale said quickly, trying to get her attention again. "His father lives here, so he belongs here."

The woman frowned deeply. "Your father lives elsewhere, but that doesn't mean you belong where he is."

Her words seemed to knock her poor son senseless. His face just morphed from a smile into this blank stare that only showed pain.

Oreo found it the right time to interrupt. "Sorry for the intrusion, ma'am-"

"You even talk like them!" She gasped, and pointed an accusing finger at him. "I'm calling the Sovereignty and they gonna lock you up and well away from the citizens here."

Oreo was truly flabbergasted as she hurried out of the room, and ultimately out of the house to call whoever these Sovereignty people were.

"What did I do wrong?" Oreo asked, turning to Kale since he had no idea what he did to make that woman react the way she did.

The boy wasn't even listening though. Oreo slapped him on the cheek softly to get him back and he flinched violently at the unexpected contact.

"What did I do wrong?" Oreo repeated.

He shook his head. "Nothing. This island is just too scared."

"Scared of what?"

"He's in Kale's room, Red!" A voice shrieked and all you could hear was rapid footsteps.

A tall man appeared in the open doorway. He was dressed in black trousers with a white long sleeved top that had blue suspenders and a strange mark on the left side, and a black, short top-hat. Spiky, red hair stuck out from all angles underneath the hat and dark, brown eyes took in the two boys before him.

He immediately went to Oreo and took the boy in a firm grasp. "You're causing trouble, I see."

Oreo shook his head, and tried to swing his arm out of Red's grip, but it didn't quite work.

Before any words could be spoken, Red threw his arm back and punched Oreo across the forehead. The boy was thrown to the side and hit the wall right beside them. He slid down to the floor, already unconscious. Red bent down and picked him up, just to stand and throw him over his shoulder carelessly. The short, black hat that Oreo wore over his unruly mop of black hair slipped off and landed on the floor softly.

Kale was staring at Red with a strange look. There was anger on his forehead's creases, coldness in his eyes, confusion in his frown and realization on his eyebrows.

Red simply tipped his hat down in respect before he turned and walked out of the door, Oreo slung over his shoulder like a rag doll.


	4. Happiness Vs Family

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

Happiness Vs Family

Rapid, unrelenting knocks sounded on Clarity's window, just as she had finished preparing for bed time. The girl looked to her window in confusion, and went to open it to let her friend just outside. It was strange though, and she was worried now, for it was never a good thing when Kale forgot his manners and didn't use the front door.

After he had finished climbing through the window, he immediately latched onto Clarity. His eyes were wide and crazy and he shook her for a good minute before she finally slapped him.

"What's wrong with you?" She yelled at him, only to have her voice muffled as he threw his hands over her mouth.

His one cheek was red from where she had hit him, but he was in too much of a frenzy to even notice or care. "Shh! Clary, I don't know what to do. I don't know why! They- they just knocked him out and carried him away. D'you hear Clary, they knocked him out! He was out! He was down!"

Clarity really had no idea what was even going on, so she shook her head violently and raised her hand to slap him again. He caught it just before it came to his face though.

"What are you talking about?" She asked after a little struggle to get her hand back (that ultimately failed).

"They took him." Kale declared. "They just took him and he was so limp. I almost thought they knocked him dead, but then he coughed-"

"Who?"

She really loved her only friend, but right at this moment, all she wanted to do was knock him out herself and then stitch his mouth closed so she never had to hear this kind of panic ever again.

"Oreo! They took Oreo and-"

"What? But he left this morning." She interrupted.

"No, he's not a cabin boy." There was a slight pause. "He's your brother Clary. He showed me an old picture of Yukra, but he looked younger and not as happy, and he told me that Yukra is his dad that left his mom, and since he's your dad as well, he's your brother."

"My brother? I don't have any brother." She stated, not quite able to process what he was telling him.

"Oreo is your brother!" Kale insisted, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her back and forth. "But we have to go save him. He was taken in by the Sovereignty."

Before Clarity could even fathom some sort of response to Kale's words, her bedroom door that had been partly open got slammed shut, and heavy footsteps echoed throughout the house before another door slammed open and shut.

* * *

><p>Oreo stifled a groan as he tried to get to his knees. His head hurt like it had just been pummelled by a tonne of bricks and he was finding it difficult to make out anything other than the bars right in front of his nose. The fact that the room he found himself in was about as lit as the bottom of a well didn't help his case either.<p>

He stopped when he heard some voices coming down from the corridor.

"You dare lock up a little child?" One voice yelled out through the silence.

It was almost deafening to Oreo, who moved his hands to cover his ears but returned them back to the floor when he felt them come into contact with the blood at the side of his face. He shuddered then, unable to control himself. He wasn't bleeding too badly that it ran down his face, but just the mere thought of some part of his face covered in the liquid red made him panicked and sick at the same time.

"Ah, sir. I cannot allow you to pass." A different voice, both smooth and equally terrifying, sounded out. "The little child you speak of is nearly a man."

"Be that as it may, you have no right to throw him behind bars."

"I have every right." The voice suddenly went cold. "I am second in command in The Sovereignty, I will do as I see fit when it comes to the safety of this island."

"Oh, and what's a boy going to do?"

"I don't see why you care so much, Yukra." There was a pause before, "Hey! Stop it, sir! You're going to make me use force to stop you? Wait! Come back!"

Oreo's panic levels had risen to the extent that he was breathing heavily. His chest was constricting and it hurt so much that it almost took the thought of blood away. But not quite.

_Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood._

His state of mind was becoming so unbearable that he couldn't even kneel anymore. He collapsed onto the dirty floor, his whole body shaking as if he were instead in a cave made of ice. The last thing he noticed before his entire being shut down from the panic was the outline of a figure stopping outside the bars of his cell.

* * *

><p>Oreo woke up with a gasp, and flung himself upright as if waking from a terrible dream. After a few minutes of trying to get his breathing back to normal, he didn't even notice that he was lying down on short grass, or that stars were above his head, or that there was a figure sitting there right beside him.<p>

His hands hesitantly went to the sides of his face, not sure if he wanted to know if the blood was still there. As he felt around dry skin, and a few bandages, a voice startled him out of his wits.

"No need to worry, I cleaned you up. Though, you may want to see someone else because I'm not a doctor."

His hands immediately flew down to the floor, and he turned his head to see a strongly built man with dark hair that was cut short and hazel eyes much like his own.

'You're mom used to be the same." The man continued to talk, not really looking at the boy anymore, but instead just ahead of him where the dark blue waters blended into the dark blue skies at the end of the horizon.

It appeared that the two of them were sitting on a large cliff over-looking the ocean. Waves crashed against the rock face nearly two hundred metres below their feet, but the cliff was solid and flat, with soft, short grass that was comfortable to lie on.

"She couldn't handle the sight of blood or the stench of it. The mere thought of it had her in a state of panic." The man just kept on talking, his hazel eyes a little downcast as nostalgic thoughts raked his mind bare. "That's what confirmed it. When I saw you lying there, consumed in fear from what little blood marked the side of you face, I knew who you were. I knew that Kale wasn't crazy."

Oreo just stared at this man who he had seen for the first time at such a close proximity and out of pictures; this man who had left his mother when he was only three years old, who had found another family to be happy with. He was conflicted that he wasn't sure whether he should go on and hug him or try to throw him off the edge of the cliff. So, he settled for standing up.

His legs felt a little wobbly, and everything had started to spin slightly when he made the movement to get to his feet, but the man in front of him, _his father, _still sat in front of him, simply watching what he would do.

"You left us." Oreo stated, his one hand clenching into a tight fist. "You left us." He repeated with his voice stronger now. "Why?"

Yukra looked to his son, and even though he knew his words would sting and cut and slash, he just had to speak the truth. Oreo deserved as much. "I just wasn't happy."

"Happy?" Oreo's voice had a sharp tang to it. "You weren't _happy?_ You left my mother, who grew so sad that she became sick from it. You left her when she needed you, when I needed you. When she was sick, there was no one but a ten year old boy to look after her, and when she died, you left that same ten year old boy on his own. All alone. With nothing but the kind scraps from his mother's friends." He paused in his speech to catch his breath and re-gather his thoughts. "She always thought the best of you, you know? All her stories were of a brave man who sailed the seas, who was the kindest and strongest and most humble man in the world. And when I find you, all I see is a selfish man who left because he just wasn't happy."

Yukra sighed into his hands and rubbed at his eyes, looking exhausted. "I would love to tell you that I have regret about my decision, but I don't. I've been the happiest I'll ever be living on this island, and I don't regret looking for happiness elsewhere. What I do regret, however, is that I made another sad. I never would have expected her to be sad about my departure, because she told me herself that she would never be able to love me."

Oreo stiffened. "If what she felt for you wasn't love... No. I don't believe a word you say!"

His father simply shrugged. "Do what you want."

There was silence that followed, but not an awkward kind. It was tense, as if neither dared speak because a sound might break the figurative, fragile glass between them. And if that glass broke, then they would both come out with cuts.

As Yukra took the chance to give his son a sideway glance, he noticed just how uptight his shoulders were –as if he were holding up the weight of the world on them- and how clenched his jaw was. What got him the most, though, was how undeniably miserable his eyes were. And he saw himself in his son, all those years ago where he was so unhappy that he left a family behind.

A sudden pain jabbed his heart. He tried to ignore it, but the pain just increased the more he gazed at the boy in front of him. He didn't like seeing the mirror image of himself right in front of him. The only way he knew to get rid of it was to offer a bit of the happiness he had found. It would take a while to stop seeing those heart-rending eyes, but when they started to shine, he believed it would all be worth it.

"If you would allow it..." Yukra started, completely shattering the fragile glass that had stood tall between them, separating them further than the fifteen years apart ever could. "I would like to show you the happiness I found."

* * *

><p><strong>A note on Yukra's descision.<strong>

So, after writing this, I found the battle between happiness and family to be really interesting and started to think about what I would do if I had ever been in Yukra's position. I'd like to say I would be selfless and stay with my family despite the unhappy pain I was going through, but I'm afraid I'm just too selfish for that.

I mean, I'm the kind of person that while I don't get too unhappy often, when I do, I tend to bring everyone else down. So even if I decided to stay with my family, I think I would make them unhappy too and I don't think I would be able to stand being a cause for pain. If you look at it through this point of view, would the decision be justified? Well, we can't say for sure because we don't know what exactly Yukra's character is like since we've only seen glimpses of it and therefore can't exactly judge him because we don't know the story between him and Oreo's mother. We get a child's perspective of it –a perspective that can be easily distorted to make the pain of losing a loved one more bearable or they don't always get it right or they don't even get the full story – so is what he said what really happened? I guess we'll find out at some point.


	5. The Start of The Sibling's Relationship

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**The Start of The Sibling's Relationship**

Oreo, despite his conflicting views on his current situation, decided to accompany his father to his house simply because he really had nowhere else to go. There was no family waiting back home. His mom's friends weren't all that fond of him because he was a constant, sad reminder of his mother, so he couldn't go back to them either. The only choice he had was to live with his father and _his _family on Sandleu Island.

As he walked through the door directly behind Yukra, whose shoulders sagged and feet dragged, he was immediately thrown into the questioning affairs of the two women in the household.

The first to be up in his face was a short, compact woman. She had cropped black hair that was held back by a brown headband and blue eyes that shone with a strange light. It was confused, yet gracious, suspicious, yet kind. Oreo didn't know what to do when that startling gaze met with his.

"Yukra, what's going on?" She asked, placing a delicate hand on her husband's arm. She had to look up at him, since he was so tall, but her face was just filled with concern.

Yukra sighed and leaned back against the wall; the day's events finally catching up to his old figure and seemingly weighing him down. "You remember Rene?" At her quick nod, he continued. "Well, this kid here is hers... and mine... and now ours." He declared.

"You put a lot of faith in my ability to accept things." She mused, crossing her arms and looking at this child up and down.

"You don't have to accept anything." Yukra replied bluntly, fixing her a look. "He's almost a man, so he'll probably be along on his own way soon enough. Do what you want in the meantime."

"I don't need your permission to do what I want," She tutted, her cheeks going slightly red from his stare. She avoided her husband's eyes then, and decided to look back at the boy who was staying silent the whole time. "He don't talk much... do he?"

"He talks!" Clarity chimed in, giving Oreo a smile which he quickly turned his head at. "I talked to him the whole day before."

"Well, we don't have to introduce you two then." Yukra clasped his hands together and turned his head into the kitchen doorway to look at the clock that hung over a counter. "That's great." He continued after turning his attention back into the room they were all standing in. "You two are going to have to share a room until we can get a third one built for the boy."

"We're gonna build a room for him?" Jose, his wife, asked seriously. "I thought you said he wouldn't be staying too long."

"Yeah, but where's he going to sleep then?" Yukra asked.

Jose simply stayed silent for a few seconds, arguing with herself over whether she should continue this heated exchange or not. Finally, she just huffed and stormed past him and swung open the door to their shared bedroom down the hallway before slamming it closed again.

Yukra smiled in amusement before turning to his two children. "Well, you two off to bed now. It's been a long day and it would be best to sleep this all off and figure it out in the morning."

Oreo gazed after the man as he sidled on over to the closed door of his bedroom. He opened it, was met with a pillow in his face immediately, then went through the door, kicking the fallen pillow back into the room with him before he closed the door.

Clarity turned to him, and reached out to grab one of his hands to guide him. He flinched and his hand shot back, but she was too stubborn to let this go. She lunched for his hand and he stepped back quickly. She continued to chase him around, all the while trying to grab his hand. She eventually succeeded and led the now exhausted boy to the room that they had to now share.

The girl opened the door and it revealed a very simply looking room. There was a semi-double bed that was across from the window, a brown cupboard right next to that and a candle stood tall on it, illuminating the dark room in a soft glow. It basked a certain black hat that lay on the bed in a warm light.

Clarity let go of his hand and ran towards it to pick it up. She then turned to him and offered the hat to him, while saying, "Kale gave it to me to give to you. I suspected Yukra would bring you here, so here. I thought you'd want it back."

Oreo took the hat from her, grasping hit firmly between his fingertips and finding the texture nostalgically comfortable. "You have my gratitude." He finally said after a long pause.

"So..." Clarity started, sitting back on her bed. "I hear you're my brother now."

"It would be best to not expect much from me." Oreo said cautiously, placing the hat on top of his head. "I'm not all that sure on how to be a brother."

"It's easy!" She chimed, and then paused. "All you've got to do is take care of me. Comfort me when I'm sad, play with me when I'm happy, look after me when I don't feel good."

"You have a very one-sided view of things." Oreo stated, obviously not very impressed with her idea of a brother that mostly involved him doing things for her.

He looked around the simple room that was devoid of pictures or anything personal that would perhaps tell him a little more about the girl. Kale had a desk in his room that was full of papers, pictures, drawings, and letters and here, this girl in front of him had nothing. Somehow, it made him more uncomfortable than he already was. It was like if she wasn't sitting in front of him right now, there would be nothing that tells of her existence.

"I suppose." Clarity finally replied, and then leant back on her bed to half lie down. She stretched up with a yawn. "Say, are you tired?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just 'cause I am. I was just about to hop into bed before Kale came a few hours ago." She explained, and then sat up straight. "I'm sorry that there's no extra bedding for you. We'll have to share the bed."

"It's okay. I'll just sleep on the floor." Oreo replied, making a move to sit down.

"Oh no!" She quickly stopped him before he went any lower. "The floor's too uncomfortable. I won't allow you to." He just slapped her hand away, but she didn't relent. "Please sleep on the bed. I'll be a bad sister if I let you sleep on the floor."

"We barely know each other, so stop taking this sister business so seriously." Oreo insisted, taking a step away from her. She got up off the bed and took a step towards him, following his movements.

"But I've never had a brother before, so why can't I take it seriously?" She asked sternly.

"Because you're freaking me out with this! How are you so accepting?"

"You've got to learn to accept things on this island. Come on, we'll start with baby steps. You already know we're siblings, so accept me as your sister so we can move on from this." She persuaded, following him as he continued to back away. She really didn't understand how she was making Oreo feel with her demands.

It was too much for one day. He had been expecting his intrusion on his father's peaceful family to be less accommodating, but here they were, just accepting him as if he'd been here his whole life. He was just awfully confused about this predicament and found it difficult to understand their accepting ways.

"It's not as little a step as you may think." Oreo finally said after a long pause.

Clarity stopped to think. "I'm too tired. We'll start with the babiest of baby steps then." She walked back to the bed and threw the covers up before climbing in. She went all the way to the wall it was up against and squished herself against it. "Here, there's lots of space. If you can do this just for tonight until we get more bedding tomorrow, then it'll count as your first step."

Oreo frowned, but he really had no choice. He suspected that if he did try sleep on the floor, he wouldn't be able to get any sleep at all because her constant bickering of sleeping on the bed would keep him up all night. He walked to the bed and placed himself on it carefully, watching Clarity, but she stayed where she was.

"I don't bite." She retorted impatiently, since he was taking so long to get settled in.

Oreo couldn't find the words to reply, so he simply took his hat off of his head and placed it beside the burning candle on the otherwise bare bedside table. He quickly blew out the candle and the room turned completely dark. The only light came from the starts shining outside through the window, but that did little to nothing to illuminate the room.

He leant back on his back, making sure he used as little of the cover as he possibly could.

"You know... it's nice to have another friend here." Clarity whispered into the silence.

Oreo turned his head sideways to look at her, but found that he could barely see the outline of her head against the darkness of the room.

"There's only you and Kale?" He asked softly since it was pure instinct to whisper back when another whispered to you.

"There was another, but he's a man now. And Kale doesn't like him. His name's Ariel."

"Why doesn't Kale like him?"

"He's jealous." She huffed then, and after a few seconds, continued on. "I just say that to tease him though. I think he doesn't like him because he joined the Sovereignty."

"Sovereignty?"

"They're kind of like Marines, but just for this island. You can't call them marines though, cause everyone here hates 'em."

"Then why is there the Sovereignty?"

"Well, at first it was to protect the ideals of the island, but you would have to ask my – I mean, our – dad about it. I can only be a parrot..." She paused. "But then the pirate age began and now the group has changed to just protect the islands itself from attacks."

A long time passed as Oreo contemplated on what she told him.

"Why do you say they're like the marines?"

No answer came. Oreo listened carefully to hear her steady breathing through the silence and figured she had fallen asleep. He shuffled around a bit to get comfortable, and finally did an attempt to sleep as he closed his eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Haha, Yukra's just so weird with his 'do whatever you want' attitude to everything. Anywho, with this chapter, I just wanted to show the start of Oreo and Clarity's relationship more for further along in the story. Next chapter will be a slight timeskip, I think around two months; mostly because I don't want to reveal too much with the how they progress to things, but also to get a little move on. I suspect about three/four more chapters left of this introduction arc, then we take a really big time skip to the actual start of this story. Anyways, hope whoever is reading this is at least enjoying it!


	6. A Request

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**The Request**

_Two months later_

The town gathering area, just outside the only farm on the west side, was large enough to host meetings for the whole population of around fifty people. The area grew packed after the gathering bell rang out at around ten o'clock.

Kale and Clarity had been adding the finishing touches to Oreo's newly built room at the time the bell sounded, since the boy had gone off on his own as per the daily ritual. He spoke strictly to them to leave him in peace when they first followed him to find him at the local library, and they had to adhere to his commands because they wanted to be on his good side.

The library itself was small compared to what it should have been with the amount of books messily packed into the old building. It had originally been a storage area for food, but since there had been a bigger and better one built in the recent years, people had started to place books in there. This trend followed on until some shelves were built and it just became known as the island's library.

To say Oreo had become utterly fixated with this place was an understatement; he was in there every single morning. No one could tell whether it was the charms of the tales of adventure or the seemingly infinite amount of knowledge that resided within the thin walls that lured him there, for he read all different types of books. From old scriptures that told of a world that wasn't on any map to books that described the formation of storm clouds, all was read under his ever-so-curious gaze.

So when that gathering bell had sounded, both Kale and Clarity had gone off in that direction to find him so he didn't miss the meeting. Since he was new to the village and had never been to a meeting, they had to make sure he knew to be there.

They surprisingly spent a few long minutes after going to the library to find him, since he was not reading within the four walls like they had expected he would be. Instead, he was lying on the roof of a house of couple of paces over, a closed book next to him titled '_Mysteries of the Deep' _and staring at the harbour and the sea that spread out behind it.

"Oreo!" Clarity called, waving her hands up in the air to try catch his attention.

The boy's head turned to the side slowly, as if he wasn't quite awake. His lips moved, but nothing could be heard from the distance between them since he wasn't shouting.

"I know you said not to follow you, but did you hear the bell? That's the gathering bell, and we just came to show you to the meeting area." Clarity yelled, and her explanation seemed to bring some life back into the boy, who immediately sat up.

She didn't know how she knew he had been upset at being disturbed during his quiet time, she just knew. And it made her chest swell slightly with pride at the fact that she was such a great sister that she could tell when he wasn't all too happy. They had a connection like that. Or that's what she personally thought at least.

Oreo silently found his way down to the floor, and spent two more minutes of their time to place the book he had sort of been reading back into the library. He joined up with Kale and Clarity and the three of them headed towards the meeting area.

Curious, Oreo asked, "Why is there a meeting?"

"I think the Sovereignty called it." Clarity answered immediately, happy to answer her brother's question.

"I heard it had something to do with Grehd Island being attacked by some big-name pirates." Kale informed them, a smug look on his face since he knew more about this than they did. "Apparently, they stole the island dry. There's hardly any of the gold there anymore."

"Pirates!" Clarity spat. "What do they think they're doing? Prancing around and acting all high and mighty just cause there's a rumour."

"Hey hey," Kale started, slinging his arm around her shoulders as they walked. It was a relatively easy feat since he had grown slightly taller than her in the past few months. "You used to love pretending you were a pirate."

"Yeah, that's cause they used to just do whatever they wanted. Now they're all following each other around blindly like the sheep at Horoi's farm; all baa-ing and being herded around as if The Pirate King's voice was the bark of the sheepdog. It doesn't sit right for me."

"Who's the pirate k-" Oreo's question was cut short as a voice called out to the three of them.

"You three better hurry the hell up!"

They didn't need to look back to know who called them. They could tell who it was just from the shivers that cold voice sent through their spines.

"What's he doing here?" Clarity immediately turned hostile and ground her teeth together as footsteps sounded behind them.

Oreo was the first to turn around, and although he had never personally been harassed by this man like Kale and Clarity, he still felt cautious around him just from their reactions whenever he was near. He didn't know their story, but frankly, he really didn't want to.

"Greetings, Ariel." Oreo nodded, tipping his black hat forward in a friendly manner.

Ariel stopped right in front of them and regarded them with his icy, blue gaze. His white hair had grown a little so that it reached his shoulders now and he wore the official uniform of the Sovereignty, After a couple of seconds, a smirk appeared on his face and he looked towards Clarity's back –since she had not turned around yet – and didn't even bother to acknowledge Oreo's greeting by saying something back to him.

"What's this? You got bookworm over here saying your words for you now." He then snorted and straightened. "You can't even say hello to a friend."

Kale spun around swiftly, one of his fists clenched in anger. "You're not Clary's friend!"

Ariel laughed. "I can be whatever I want to be, you little rat-face!"

"Yeah, but it appears that you can't be Ariel." Clarity spoke loudly, not even bothering to turn around and say it to his face. She smiled ahead of her when only silence met her and she continued to walk forwards. Kale followed after her almost immediately, wanting to get away, but Oreo hung back, regarding Ariel carefully.

He was no longer smirking, but instead, his eyes were narrowed as he watched the two of them walk away from him. He hissed slightly before abruptly facing Oreo. "You! Run along now little bookworm." And he made little motions with his hands.

Oreo tipped his head forward so that the shadow of his hat covered his eyes and then he smiled.

_He's an idiot. _He thought to himself as he turned and followed Kale and Clarity at a distance, deciding to go at his own, leisurely pace.

* * *

><p>"Welcome everyone!" Red stood on a raised platform overlooking the area where the whole island was gathered. He was dressed in his normal Sovereignty uniform, as well as about ten other people who stood at attention behind him.<p>

"As all of you are probably well aware, there's been an uproar in pirate activity these past few months. Just the other day, Grehd Island was attacked and plundered for all it was worth by a bunch of low-life scum. We have reason to fear that the pirates may make their way over to Sandleu Island, so we called this meeting."

His voice was as smooth as silk and it entranced everyone there. You could already see guarded fear in the eyes of the crowd. It was nothing short of amazing because the man had charismatic talent.

"We ask that all the farmers produce more product than normal to trade for weaponry so that we, as this island's protectors may actually protect this island when the pirates come over. It's but a small price to pay for your safety... don't you think?"

"But this island's hasn't ever needed weaponry." An uncertain voice called out amongst the crowd.

"Ah, but we are entering the most enormous pirate age we will probably ever see. It's no secret that the words of the Pirate King spurred on a countless number of innocent people to become pirates all for the sake of a little glory and a little money." Red replied, talking slowly to make sure everyone took his words into careful consideration.

"I say it's more than a little money!" A different voice shouted out, and his next words made Red freeze for a few seconds. "It's the One Piece!"

Red straightened his back and gazed at the crowd, trying hard to keep a smile on his face. "The fact of the matter is, my dear friends, that we have no safety precautions when it comes to pirates landing on this island. We are not protected by the government – of course none of us would want their protection anyway – but we must still be able to fight back."

"Well... I don't mind increasing the trades if we get more safety." Another voice spoke out amongst the whispering crowd. There were mostly murmurs and nods of agreements after that.

Red smiled, though from the look in his eyes, it wasn't the kind of smile that had happy thoughts hiding behind it.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Well, I'm a little more late than normal, but sheesh, where the hell are these days going? It kind of feels like I'm not even going day-to-day but rather it's just this long, continuous, never-ending amount of time that I'm just floating through. It's pretty weird and horrible, but oh wells.

I'm start to re-build this story and we're going to skip ahead a few months because why not? I actually think this will take four chapters until the end of the introduction arc and we can finally start with the journey! Yay!


	7. Monsters

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Monsters**

_Five months later_

Oreo rubbed at his eyes, momentarily coming back into reality long enough for him to notice that sunlight wasn't streaming through the windows anymore. It was the dull light of the evening that illuminated the small library he sat in. He closed the book in his lap, making a mental note of the page he was on, before he placed it onto one of the shelves. He stretched quietly, hearing a crack in his back after a couple of seconds, and then shook his head and made his way to get out of the building.

As he got outside, he looked to the bright sun by the edge of the horizon. It looked like it was being swallowed whole by the ocean after minutes kept going by and he couldn't help but think to himself that the ocean was as monstrous as the rumours and books said it was.

It had the strength to swallow the sun whole every day without fail, without empathy, without any remorse. And that strength scared him a little. He had gone to the shore multiple times since coming to this island, since the town he had lived at with his mother was in the middle of a large island with the ocean miles too far and he was curious about it. Those trips to where the salty water licked at the sand taught him a few things.

One: The ocean tasted utterly horrible.

Two: That he was insignificant.

Three: There is so much more out there than this tiny island.

He had grown to have an admiration for the great blue, as he watched it come roaring back to the shore every time it got pushed away and he hoped to grow like that; strong and fearless and unable to give up.

After a final look at where the bright sun touched the endless ocean, he turned his back and started to walk through the town. He figured he should try to find Clarity. These past days she had constantly pressurised him into spending time with her because Kale had been fighting with her a lot over something or another. She had been extremely vague about what they were fighting about, but it must've been something trivial.

But, there was that gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him that there was something wrong with their fights, that maybe it wasn't a small a thing as he thought it was. This fighting had started about a month ago, when the weapons from the war country, Klophty, came in after a rather large trading deal. After that, Clarity had come home fuming every day about Kale and his stupidity.

Oreo stopped for a second to sigh. He really wasn't sure how to deal with his sister.

As he continued to walk, he passed the small restaurant that the three of them had eaten at when he first met them. Old Hilary had passed away a few days ago and it's been closed ever since.

It had been an accident by the harbour when she fell off the planks, hit her head, and drowned in the waters near there. Her death came as a shock to everyone on the island, mostly because everyone knew that she wasn't a clumsy person at all. Even he himself wasn't sure if it was really how she died, but the report came from Red, so it must be true. That man had the powers to convince anyone that if they thought about it long enough, they could grow wings and fly off. It was astonishing, really.

Oreo was saddened by her death, for the old woman had always been kind to him and let him off with more free meals than was comfortable for him, and he enjoyed talking to her about this island's past. She knew a lot of stories, most of them true, and it was exciting to learn about it. She had been at this island before his father even came here, and years before it had even become a well-known trading port. She knew about the islands close around too, and answered every question Oreo had. It was hard to comprehend that she was just... gone.

As Oreo gazed almost absent-mindedly at the closed building, he noticed a flicker of movement through the window. Upon closer inspection, he saw two figures sneaking through the restaurant. He was about to knock on the window to tell them to get out, but one turned around and started making exaggerated hand movements at the other. It took a few moments for Oreo to realize that it was Clarity and Kale having another fight.

He ground his teeth together in irritation. How_ dare_ they have a fight in such a kind woman's restaurant, especially after she's just died?

He spun around and decided to walk in around the back to give them a lesson on respect. After nearly running into the dustbins at the back in almost blind anger, he managed to fling open the back door to go into the kitchen. Just as he was about to open the door that linked the kitchen to the restaurant, he heard Clarity's whining voice.

"I don't want to be in here."

"Don't you see it, Clary?" Kale's voice piped up. "Look at this place, remember Hilary! Remember how she was, who she was, all the things she did. It's unfair!"

"Oh, you brought me here so you could blame the Sovereignty again? Stop with this! You have no idea what you're talking about." He voice answered. Clarity normally didn't get upset over anything but Ariel, and here she was at the most angry Oreo had ever heard. It was scary.

"Stop making up excuses for them. Do you know how many 'accidents' have happened since they got the weapons they've been asking for?" He asked. There was a long silence before he answered himself. "Five. Five people have died. That's five times more deaths than we've had this past_ year_. All in one month. And that one had been the old vineyard owner who we know was shot by Red."

_Red shot someone? _Oreo thought to himself, his eyes widening. _I can't quite imagine it..._

"That's-"

Kale interrupted her before she could even finish two words." Don't you dare tell me that it's not linked. Don't you tell me you can't believe this, that we mustn't blame those who protect us, that it's all just a coincidence. You know better than that. That's why you hate Ariel so much."

A noise sounded and Oreo guessed it was Clarity either stamping her foot or throwing something.

"No! That's why _you _hate Ariel so much!" She started breathing loudly. "You can't stand that he's in the Sovereignty, while I don't particularly care about that. I hate him because he abandoned me. He abandoned me with a stupid-head like you!"

There were a few slapping sounds that sounded afterwards, but Oreo wasn't sure who was hitting who or if Kale was just grabbing Clarity's arm to stop her from leaving. He could still hear her breathing heavily as Kale began to speak again.

"I know you hate me talking about this, but we need to do something to stop these monsters." He said, almost quietly.

"Monsters?" Clarity questioned with the same quietness. "Those things only live in the ocean."

_Not only the ocean._ Oreo thought to himself, gripping his hand into a knuckle to resist the urge to correct her.

"They're monsters in people clothing. They're worse than the small fries in the sea." Kale insisted.

_Again, they don't only live in the ocean you stupid kids._ Oreo thought, now having to bite his hand to stop himself from interrupting them with a string of corrections.

"I think you don't know what you're talking about." Clarity finally stated after an overly long pause.

"You know, if you don't want to help me, I'm just going to do everything myself!" Kale shouted out and stomped on towards the door. He was so angry that he didn't even notice almost hitting Oreo in the face as he flung open the door. He just went right on past without a second glance and slammed the second door behind him as he left the building.

Clarity was through the door by the time Oreo got over the sudden fright, and nearly jumped. "What're you doing there?" She asked, her anger still clear from the fight.

Instead of answering, Oreo just got to his feet. He looked her in the eyes, and asked. "Are you alright?"

She frowned and huffed. "I'm fine!" After a few moments of him just regarding her, she flicked him on the forehead. "Come on, we need to get home for dinner." She commanded and ushered him in front of her so he couldn't look at her.

When they were walking, she was glad she was behind him, because she didn't want him to see how wet her cheeks were from her silent weeping. The fights were getting a little too much for her to handle, and no matter how much she despised it, her eyes always found a way to cry after one.

* * *

><p><p>

Yukra knocked on his daughter's bedroom door before barging right in before she could even tell him to go away. A steaming cup of tea was in one of his hands as he walked towards the bed where she was curled up in a ball under the sheets. He placed the cup on the bedside table before lighting the candle that was on it to give some light in the room.

He sat on the edge of the bed, making it dip down from his heavier weight, and placed a hand on her shoulder to pat it. He sighed in his head, since it was meant to be the mother's job to do the comforting, but he had lost the rock, paper, scissors match and she wouldn't go for the two out of three gimmick.

He felt Clarity's shoulders go up quickly before going back down just as swiftly and figured she was crying again. He moved his hand to rub her back gently but could not find the words to comfort her.

After what seemed like a lifetime, Clarity lifted her head from under the sheets and looked at her father with red eyes. He was expecting a 'get the hell out of my room' or furrowed eyebrows, but he was instead asked a difficult question.

"Hey, do monsters wear human costumes?" She asked, rubbing at one of her eyes.

Yukra stiffened and to stall for time to think, he shot a look at Oreo who had stopped at the open doorway to oversee the comforting process, and perhaps hope to learn something from it.

"Oi! Your sister doesn't need two people to pester her." He then made a shooing motion with his hand. Oreo frowned, but nonetheless, he turned to leave.

As Yukra thought a little, he noticed that a small part of Oreo's arm was sticking out from his hiding spot right next to the door, and he couldn't help but give a small smile. It was nice to see him care. He turned back to his daughter, who was still looking up at him curiously.

"Well..." Yukra started. "'Monsters' is quite a vague name for something, don't you think?"

Clarity seemed to think on this for a while before answering with a wavering voice. "Monsters hurt people, don't they? They wait in the shadows and feed on people whenever they get the chance. They crawl out of the sea and hide under children's beds to eat their dreams. Monsters are... they're just monsters."

"Here's a lesson to learn." Yukra replied, "there are different types of monsters, and you're thinking of the worst kind." He stood up to walk out of her room. As he got to the door, he shoved Oreo away so the boy could go to his room. He turned back to her to see her sitting up and staring at him with wide eyes as if she couldn't believe that there was anything but bad monsters. "There are worse things to be than monsters." He finally said and closed the door to let her think about his words.


	8. The Boy Bathed in Flames

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**The Boy Bathed in Flames**

It had been a week already. Clarity sat in one corner of her room with her knees drawn up close to her body and with her chin resting on her knees. She really hated this. She had never hated anything more than this. She had never felt as bad as she did now.

And it was all because of Kale.

He had been her only friend for years. She used to see him every day, tease him playfully, call him names, play all sorts of games, talk about everything and anything and now that wasn't happening anymore.

For the first time in her life, she found herself cursing the stubbornness that caused this whole mess. She had always been happy that she was stubborn since it let her have her way every single time, but Kale didn't want it her way, and they fought and fought and fought. The last time she saw him was when he stormed away from her in old Hilary's restaurant saying he was going to do something about the monsters. And the more she thought about his words, the more scared she got.

What could he possibly do? Most likely something that wouldn't make the Sovereignty very happy.

And what did they do when they weren't happy? Well, they destroyed whatever was the cause of this despondency.

What if they shot him?

Clarity quickly shook her head, not wanting to believe it. She felt the sticky warmth build up behind her eyes again and welcomed it like an old friend. She didn't bother trying to hold back the tears anymore. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to stop herself from crying, the force of her feelings were too relentless and she could no nothing but be hopeless. And she hated every second of this.

Hours seemed to pass of her just sitting there, curled up as if trying to hide herself from the idea that Kale could possibly be dead. It was unbearable to think about. She felt completely lost in the darkness of both her room and her mind.

Then, something semi-awoke her from her trance, and she glanced towards the source of the noise. Her window creaked open bit by bit, almost as if time was going by in slow motion, and she looked at the window as it opened, not really processing the fact that it was opening. It was like she was there, but also so far away.

"Clary..." A voice called through the only half-open window hesitantly.

That voice. She knew that voice. She knew it was Kale's and her heart burst open in an explosion of joy and gratefulness that he had not done anything stupid to cause his death. What was happening on the inside, however, completely contradicted what was happening on the outside, for her body could hardly find the energy to respond to her friend's voice.

Her mind was screaming so desperately at her body to move towards the window where Kale stood behind. She wondered briefly why he wouldn't just climb through, like he had a number of times before, and she got her answer before she even asked the question.

"I've had enough." His voice spoke softly through the window and Clarity had to strain her ears to hear. "I can't take what the Sovereignty is doing anymore. It's not good for anyone on this island. It's not good for you." There was a long pause. "I want to set you and everyone free from their tyranny. You know the tyranny that everyone's too blind to see? I... I don't want any more accidents to happen. Everyone is too kind and undeserving of that kind of treatment."

He paused again, as if waiting to hear if she would respond. She just couldn't. There was too much going on inside for her to do anything.

"I've been learning some things from that war veteran, Tank. He knew a lot about bombs and fire and it gave me an idea. A great idea. An idea so great that it had to be done. So, I'm doing it tonight... and I don't know what's going to happen. Even if I survive tonight, I probably won't be able to live once people know what I'm about to do. So, I guess I just..."

There was another long pause.

"Even though you're probably sleeping now and won't hear... I just wanted to say that even though all I did was wonder why the hell it was you I had to be friends with, I'm kinda glad I was. I'm glad we got to know each other, I'm glad we were neighbours, I'm glad we grew so close. I'm glad... I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're the person I care the most about and I'm glad I can do this for you."

Clarity cursed when she realized the only response her body could make was more tears. She couldn't even move her hands to wipe at her eyes, but she could already feel her cheeks were slick and hot. Her eyes felt like they were burning and everything started to blur. Why did this sound like a goodbye? She didn't want to say goodbye to Kale. He couldn't leave her. Sure, they'd been fighting, but that doesn't mean he has to say goodbye.

"Please don't go." She finally whispered, though she doubted Kale would be able to hear.

Her friend did stay by the window though, as if stalling, trying to avoid his own decision, seeing if Clarity would wake up and try to stop him with that God-awful stubbornness of hers.

And so, he continued to talk. "I don't know if I ever told you why I hate the Sovereignty so much, it had never really seemed so important, even when we were fighting. But, it feels important now." There was a pause. "I bet you never knew that my dad was a marine. I never even knew until I was at least eight. Momma says that he used to be a real good man, like a hero in one of those stories we would pester Oreo to read to us. He did all the great things marines apparently did; he saved a lot of lives, and helped a lot of people. But, momma says he got greedy with his power. She says he used justice as an excuse to start hurting people, to start taking money off of them. She says he started hurting her and that's how she got those scars on her neck. And I don't know... all her stories about my father felt so sincere and I got so angry at him. I got so angry at the marines. I got so angry when I started seeing the Sovereignty hurt people, and kill them, and take their products to trade for more weapons. And the more weapons that came, the more the accidents started to happen. And I couldn't stop comparing them to the stories of my father and they were so similar. I just kept getting angrier and angrier, and kept thinking of ways to try and save everyone and the only thing that made sense was to get rid of the Sovereignty. So, I'm going to do just that."

He paused again, this time for only a few seconds, and the voice came through so soft that Clarity wasn't sure if he even said it or if she had just imagined it.

_Goodbye._

It took almost an infinite amount of time before Clarity started to move. Why was it so incredibly difficult? Why could she only crawl to the window where Kale had been standing before? Why was she so out of it?

It didn't make any sense to her. She had never felt this way before.

She was just so... scared.

She was scared of letting him see her like this. She was scared her body would be so uncontrollable that she would able to do nothing once she caught up to him. She was scared that if she didn't do anything, he would die, but she was also scared that if she did do something, she would be there to watch him die, and she wouldn't be able to bear that. It was all too confusing.

She was a coward. No. She was worse than a coward.

And all she could do was slump halfway through the window in indecisiveness.

"Clarity, what are you still doing up?" Oreo's voice came to her as she slumped out of the window and landed on the grass outside. She heard his footsteps as he walked to the window and saw his face as he peeked his head out to look at her. "Are you... feeling alright?"

Clarity really didn't see a point in answering that. Did she look like she was feeling alright?

"Help." She spoke up, her voice wavering and soft.

"Help? Help you with what?" He asked curiously, swinging a leg through the window to climb out.

"Kale." She answered quietly and looked down the path to the left.

Oreo put his hands on his hips as he regarded the situation. "Kale went that way? Are you two fighting again?"

She shook her head quickly and raised her hands up to him, like a toddler did when he wanted to be picked up. Oreo pulled a face at her request, but complied since he had never seen her like this before. He bent down low and pulled her first to her knees, then up on her feet. As soon as she was up, she started off in the direction down the path, but tripped on the first step and would've fallen down had Oreo not caught her.

"Come on." He said, walking in front of her and offering his back. She hesitantly allowed herself to get a piggy-back and Oreo lifted her up effortlessly. He was glad she was so much smaller than he was. "That way?" He asked, heading left.

The two walked in silence, or Oreo walked while Clarity was carried on his back, but they were both silent nonetheless. Clarity was sure Kale had gone down this path because he said he was doing something to the Sovereignty and their headquarters where all the members lived was down this way, so she suspected he went there for his 'great plan'.

"So, what's going on?" Oreo tried to ask, finally breaking through the silence.

Clarity sniffed, but tried to put on a strong face, mostly for her own benefit since her brother could not see her. "Kale said goodbye."

Oreo seemed to stiffen underneath her, and Clarity looked up over his shoulder and her eyes just widened in complete horror. There was smoke coming up from behind some of the buildings and bright orange flames licked their way up to the sky.

"Is that the Sovereignty building?" Oreo asked in shock, nearly dropping his sister.

Before she could even answer, he was already running towards it. She smelled the smoke before she felt the heat and Oreo stopped as he turned the corner.

The building was directly in the middle of the town, but isolated from the houses since the residential areas were on the outside of the layout while the commercial buildings, like restaurants and shops, crowded in the middle. The Sovereignty building was the only residential building for miles. And it was burning as bright as hell.

Oreo and Clarity stared, mystified, since they had never really experienced a fire such as this. Clarity slipped off her brother's back when she saw a familiar figure through the curling flames. She pushed Oreo aside to move closer, ignoring the blistering heat that emanated towards her with each step she took. The figure, that small figure, was by the front - and only - doorway and she couldn't help but know that the figure was her friend.

She got closer and closer, each step as robotic as the last. She couldn't keep her eyes off the figure in the fire. Everything from the heat to the smoke to the crackling noise eluded her and all she could do was stare.

The boy bathed in flames finally looked back at her, and their eyes met through the flaming wall of red, but she couldn't recognize him.

Where were those kind, happy eyes she once knew? When did his jaw get so set? Why did she ignore all of his anger? Maybe she could have helped...

But then again, the fire between them did burn, but compared to the passion of anger that scorched in his eyes, it was but a mere fire that flickered lifelessly on an almost burnt-out candle. She began to think that there was no way she would have been able to douse that kind of anger, not even a little bit.

Oreo felt something strange, and a flicker of an image flashed behind his eyes, where he saw the whole building explode. This image was literally a millisecond, but it was enough for fear for Clarity to take over and he exploded into a sprint to reach her in time. He wasn't sure what this strange sensation was, perhaps some sort of sixth sense for danger, but he knew to trust it.

Time moved slowly for him and he reached out and grabbed her arm. She easily got pulled over since she was so unresponsive, and he was able to push the both of them to the floor before the loudest crash he had ever heard in his life sounded out. He made sure to cover her small frame to protect her.

And then everything exploded.

He screamed with a course voice that he couldn't even hear because the explosion had done something strange to his ears, but he knew he was screaming since the burn of his throat was as evident as the burn on his back. And, dear God, his back was burning.

He had never felt in so much pain in his life, and he screamed because of it. It was like he was in some strange dream, because all his senses - but one - were distorted.

He couldn't hear. His vision was blurred so much that he eventually had to close his eyes. All he could smell was smoke and that did nothing but make him dizzy and woozy and hot all at once. He couldn't even think about tasting anything because the only thing that made sense to him was the pain.

The feeling of his back sizzling, of glass and wood ships buried deep into the reddened skin and that pulsing, throbbing sensation that spread out all through his back. It was so excruciatingly painful that as soon as he stopped screaming, he simply passed out.

And the last thing that Clarity would ever remember seeing would be that boy who was bathed in flames; the one who had been her friend. And the last expression she ever saw from him was one of untainted and brutal anger.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Aww, I was actually kind of sad writing that. Oh, Kale. I'm sorry, man.

Anywho, with this the introduction arc is all done and wrapped up. The next chapter we start Arc One – "Pirates?" (heh, I don't have a better name for it) which takes place three years after the events of the introduction arc and inevitably starts us on a hopefully awesome journey. I don't know, I'm pretty excited and am having fun with the planning and character making, so I should have fun with the story.

So, hope whoever is reading this is enjoying this and look forward to the next chapter which will be the linking chapter between the Introduction Arc and Arc One – "Pirates?".


	9. Bosca Island - The Pirate Port

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Arc One - "Pirates?"  
>Bosca Island - The Pirate Port<br>**

_Three years later..._

A small, beat up fishing boat docked at the harbour. It looked shabby and out-of-place compared to the decent sized ship next to it, but even that ship looked unused and battered.

A tall man stepped off of the little fishing boat and onto the planks. He quickly tied a rope to connect his small boat to the pole that jutted out next to the planks and made sure it was secured before he jumped back onto the boat. His long legs easily crossed to the back and he rummaged around for a while, eventually bringing out an old note book along with a small bag which he slung carelessly over his shoulder.

He gave the boat a little pat, as if he was praising it, and then flipped open the note book in his hands. His long fingers moved over the familiar old paper and he located the page he wanted immediately.

He looked up at the buildings in front of him, then back down at his book.

"Bosca Island, the pirate port." He read the description in front of him and scratched his head uncomfortably, moving the black hat on his head forwards and backwards in the process. "I swear I set course for Tereal Island."

He then shook his head and fixed his hat properly over the mop of dark hair that currently grew out to the bottom of his ears. "Great..." He muttered to himself, "The first island of my adventure turns out to be an infamous pirate port."

He moved forwards and got out his boat and back onto the planks.

_Oh well. I guess I better make the most of it. I said I wanted to meet some interesting people, and what's more interesting than a bunch of pirates? Well, probably a lot of things more, but it'll have to do. _He thought to himself as he walked along the planks until he reached the stony path that led into the port town.

There was a gate from the harbour that led into the town, and the tall man found himself being stopped by a stocky man who stood in the middle of the gate. His whole frame covered it so there was no way he would be able to get past.

The tall man looked at this burly man in confusion, his hazel eyes going a little wide at the size of his heavily muscled arms and thick neck.

"Ten hundred bellies for entrance." He spoke up, his voice deep and gruff.

"What?" The tall man exclaimed, "why the hell do I need to pay an entrance fee?"

"Fifteen hundred bellies for entrance." He answered, crossing his heavy arms in front of him and narrowing his small eyes.

"Okay, okay. Stop raising it." The man's long hands went to his belt and he pulled out a coin bag. He paid ten hundred bellies, which was more than half of what he had anyway, but the burly gate guard still kept his hand open, expecting the other five hundred bellies. "I don't have fifteen hundred to give you." The tall man finally stated, shoving his little almost-empty bag back to its place on his belt.

The gate guard sighed, but nonetheless moved out of the way to let him into the town. "Surprised I got this much off of you anyway." He whispered as he passed. The tall man looked shocked, but the gate guard simply smirked and walked off to the harbour whistling a merry tune.

The tall man gritted his teeth in frustration, but knew he could not do anything to get his money back. He doubted he would be able to do much in a fight against that over-muscled imbecile.

_'Get yourself together, Oreo.' _The man thought to himself, taking a deep breath, '_Sure, you're not exactly used to being out in the world, but don't be so naive!' _

So far, on his adventure, he had sailed to the wrong island, been crooked into giving away half the money he owned and was so desperately hungry for food that he probably won't even be able to pay for. This was turning out fantastically.

Oreo made his way through the edge of the town, just taking in all the sights and smells in awe. This place was just as horrific as the rumours said it was. There was that constant cigar smell that clung to the buildings and the people he passed. It made him want to gag, but he had to be strong.

"Oh, what a lovely looking lad!" A petite hand stopped him in his tracks and he found himself face to face with a woman who he had to look down on. And upon looking down, he immediately felt flushed because this woman had less clothing on that he was expecting, and he was embarrassed to see her knowing face that told him she'd just witnessed him getting an eyeful of the gifts she was bestowed with.

"S-sorry ma'am!" He stuttered and tried to look away, but her small hands reached up and held his face still in her hands.

"No need to worry, young lad. It's a compliment, I'd say." She smiled at him and Oreo stood, transfixed on her green eyes. She was a pretty lady, with her dark, chocolate brown hair flowing around her tan face. "You like what you see, don't cha? Yeah, it's all good, but just know I ain't so cheap."

Oreo shook his head to get out of her grasp and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I could see you're innocent, but I didn't know you were that innocent." Her eyes widened and she gave him a look of sympathy. "Don't cha worry about one little thing, young lad, I can teach you all you need to know about what I do."

"What do you do?" He asked, almost scared to hear her answer.

She leant on her tippy toes and pulled his face down to her level to whisper in his ear. Oreo's face had never gone so red from what she said, and the woman wanted to laugh at this poor kid who was so flustered.

"Yo, woman!" A man's voice called, and the woman turned to see the man beckoning at her.

"Oh, that's a regular of mine!" She exclaimed, almost in excitement. "Great, he always pays well." She then turned back to Oreo and placed her petite hand on his tomato-red cheek. "Come find me later, kid. I'll show you a good time."

As soon as she left him, Oreo immediately turned and scurried away. He felt like he was going to melt in this huge pool of embarrassment. He had to lean against a wall to calm himself until he had stopped shaking and could breathe normally again. He had never known any woman to be so forward and... descriptive. He had to make sure to not come anywhere near this area in the future. It was way too uncomfortable.

"You're quite good-looking." A voice interrupted his calming session and he opened his eyes to see yet another woman, dressed with as little clothing as the last, tilting her head like a puppy as she looked under the arm he was using to lean against the wall. "I'm good-looking too, don't you think?"

Oh, dear God, was this another one? Oreo straightened and looked down at her, but she just smiled. Blonde hair curled around her slightly plump face, but her eyes were bright and blue. He'll admit that she was attractive, but all he wanted to do was run away before he could get flustered again.

She was about to open her mouth to say something, and he didn't know how he knew, but he just knew that what she was going to say was going to make him blush. He immediately turned his back on her and ran away shouting, "I'm not interested!"

As he tried to get away from the strange and forward women, he found himself running deeper and deeper into the town, where he noticed that the monster women were becoming fewer and men – who by the looks of them were probably pirates – were becoming more apparent. There were also bars behind almost every door and men flocked in each bar, drinking, shouting, gambling and just apparently having a good time.

Oreo stopped by one of the bars that had some cleaner windows, and looked through curiously. There hadn't been many places to drink back on Sandleu Island, so he wondered what men actually did when they drunk.

Apparently, they fought a lot.

As he looked through the window, there was a man making some very exaggerated hand movements and it appeared that all eyes were on him. He had light brown hair that came up to the bottom of his neck, but it was thick and bunched up untidily. He sashayed around the place like he owned it, but it looked like he was too poor to own anything since all he wore was a white long-sleeved shirt with a rip on the back and brown pants that were folded to his mid-calf. He was even barefoot.

A bald man stopped him, and took the glass of some sort of alcoholic drink out of his hands. The other man protested, but was immediately picked up by the bald guy, who went towards the door. He opened it with a flurry and literally just threw this other man out. He was thrown so far that he hit the dumpsters that were crowded at the opposite building.

Oreo looked at the bald man, who was dusting his hands off with a look of disgust on his face.

"If ya wanna drown so badly, haul yer ass to the lady sea and let her take hold of ya!" The bald man shouted at the man in the dumpsters and raised his fist. "Stop drowning in meh alcohol that ya can't even pay fer!" With that all said and done, he slammed the door to his bar closed.

Oreo made a mental note to not anger bar owners and was about to keep walking forward on his little exploration, but a voice stopped him.

"You there. Com' 'ere real quick."

Oreo turned to the voice and saw that it belonged to the man sitting in the dumpsters. He was brushing some sort of sauce off of his white shirt but it was just making it smudge and made him look even dirtier than he had before. Oreo looked left and right to make sure there was no one else he could possibly be talking to, and the man shouted out impatiently.

"You're the only one there, ain't ya?!" The man then looked a little confused. "Wait, maybe I'm imagining you." His voice was slurred, so it was a little hard to understand.

Oreo walked forward to stand in front of the man and regarded him. He truly looked like a mess. The man stared down at his bare feet and started mumbling, so Oreo leaned forward to try and hear what he was saying. He thought he caught a few words, but they made no sense.

The man tried to get to his feet, but he was so unsteady, and Oreo felt that he had no choice but to help him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." The man whispered to himself, "fuck this!" he finally shouted out, and lifted his hands in the air. He immediately got unbalanced, and would have toppled back on the dumpsters if Oreo hadn't steadied him. The man started to lean on Oreo heavily and just as Oreo was about to help him move forward, he got pushed away and the man turned away from him and started to laugh.

"I knew it!" He called out giddily and threw his hands up in the air again, as if he were addressing a crowd of people that weren't there. He turned to Oreo, who had never been more confused in his life, and shouted out, "Too trusting!" He held out a coin bag, and Oreo's hands went to his belt to confirm that it wasn't there anymore. "I knew you weren't from around here! You smell too clean, and you got them innocent eyes of a youn' one."

Oreo thought that that this man in front of him was probably around the same age, so he didn't quite understand how he was the one being called young.

The man threw Oreo's coin bag back at him, and he caught it easily. He then slumped his shoulders and gazed at him with a strange look.

"Ey..." He slurred out and threw his arm around Oreo's shoulder. "Since you're so trusting, can you take me home? I want to sleep."

"Home?" Oreo asked, "Where's your home?"

The man smirked carelessly and tried to pull him forward, but it didn't quite work out as well as he had hoped since he only just fell over his own feet. Oreo straightened him as he replied, "Don't worry. I know exactly where it is."


	10. A Drunken Man and his Drunken ways

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**A Drunken Man and his Drunken Ways**

"Here! Here it is!" The man shouted, straightening himself and pointing at a door in excitement.

Oreo found himself sighing. How many times had this happened already? He was beginning to lose count.

"For the last time..." Oreo started drowsily, "are you certain that this is definitely your home?"

The man stopped leaning on him and walked towards the door. Before he opened it however, he turned back to Oreo, who looked like he was ready to stab himself since he knew what was coming after hearing it so many times already. The man swept his arm gracefully in front of him and dramatically placed his hand on his chest where his heart was.

"Dear friends," he addressed no one in particular, "this man here shines brighter than any light I have ever seen." He stretched out his other hand in front of him – palm facing away from him - and gave it a crooked smile. He then looked at Oreo and indicated his hand, flapping it around a couple of times. After seeing this a few times already, he still had no idea what the man meant when he shook his hand like that. And the man continued on without an explanation. "In the darkness of the night, he is the simple candle light that guided me home. Home. Home." He said the word a few more times, and made a face as if the word tasted bad every time he said it.

After being distracted with rolling his tongue like he was trying to get the bad taste out of his mouth, he paused and looked at Oreo as if wondering why he was still there. He leaned forward and patted Oreo's shoulder a couple of times, making sure he was real, and then he finally continued on with his speech. "Ah, yes, my candle light in the darkness. Need not to worry, my friends, for I have found my house at long last!" With that final shout, he swung open the door and waltzed inside.

Oreo timed it this time as he did the last. It took about forty seconds for a scream to sound out and for the drunken man to come running out again.

He dove through the door and closed it behind him roughly, turning around and leaning on it heavily with his back. His arms spread to the sides and held on to the wall on each side of the door and he looked left and right suspiciously, as if expecting something to jump out at him.

After a few seconds of breathing heavily, his arms dropped to his sides and he sighed. "That is not my home." He pointed at Oreo and shouted. "You're the worst fucking home-guiding candle light I've ever had in my life!"

Oreo fumed, clenching his fists into tight balls. "You give the worst directions! That's the seventh house you've gone into that hasn't been yours! How the hell am I supposed to guide you home when you don't even know where your home is, huh?"

The man looked down the street, already distracted by something off in the distance.

"Oi! Are you even listening to me?" Oreo snapped his fingers under his nose, but the man completely ignored him.

"I think I know that girl," he muttered to himself, and started walking down the street.

He started walking off and Oreo huffed and turned his back on him. This drunken man was really starting to piss him off. The amount of times he had had to chase after him just this night seemed impossibly infinite, but he never stayed still, he never listened, he gave stupid directions, he lied, he'd stolen his coin bag a number of times already, most of them by accident because apparently, the man didn't recognize him and, oh and, he was just a drunken nuisance.

Oreo had never really been one for violence, but at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to punch the drunken man across his drunken face until he drunkenly jumped to the side with exaggerated hand movements and dramatic sound effects to fit his ridiculous attitude.

"Oi."

Just who the hell did this drunken man think he was anyway? Calling him a bad home-guiding candle-light... he was insufferable. Intolerable. Impossible. Unbearable.

"Oioi."

Just such an idiot. And why did he have to exaggerate everything he did? Couldn't he be normal, and normally find his home on his own like a normal person would?

"Oioioi."

Oreo had never felt so frustrated in his life. He was just going to leave this drunken man because he couldn't stand this anymore.

"Oioioioi."

"What?!" Oreo finally shouted as he turned back to the man, who was now laying face first on the pathway.

"Help me."

Oh, but this man was so pathetic, it literally hurt Oreo. So he sighed and went to the man and pulled him up to his feet. Once he was up and about, he immediately tried walking down the street again.

"Come on. I know that woman! She'll know where I live."

Thank goodness. Maybe he would finally be able to get back to his boat to sleep. It must've been early morning by now.

As they got closer to the woman, Oreo froze when he recognized her. With those green eyes and that flowy brown hair, she was pretty hard to forget.

She smiled as he got closer and threw the bottle she had been drinking from to the floor, splattering glass all over the street.

"Well, if it isn't the innocent kid." She spoke up, walking up to him with pure confidence. She bent down to inspect the drunken man, who had apparently fallen asleep in the short walk over. "What'cha doing with this loser though?"

"You know him?" Oreo asked, quite surprised that this man had actually been right about recognizing her.

"Yeah, though he's always changing his name. Think it has something to do with his huge debts he owes practically everywhere." She placed a delicate finger on her chin thoughtfully, but then shrugged. "Too bad, but I don't remember which one's his actual real name."

"That doesn't matter." He responded, shaking his head. "Please tell me you know where he lives."

"He doesn't live anywhere, I think. I see him around town all the time, but I don't think he actually lives here." She paused, and hummed to herself, looking thoughtful. "Perhaps he lives further inland or maybe... Wait! He could possibly live in that old ship down by the harbour. It's pretty decent sized, though it hasn't left the harbour for at least three years, and that one came here when he was sixteen, so I presume it's his." She furrowed her brow in confusion. "But wait, how would he have gotten here by himself on such a big ship. I don't know a lot about ships, but that one would probably need three of four people to sail it properly and one person wouldn't be able to do that by himself, so maybe that isn't where he lives."

"I guess the best I can do is see if he recognizes it when I take him down there." Oreo said, half to himself. He looked down at the now sleeping man and took a deep breath, preparing himself for the long haul back to the harbour.

"Howcome you're helping him?" the woman asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Is it a crime to help someone?" Oreo asked, equally as confused.

She shook her head. "No, I guess we just don't see that very often here." She then smiled. "It's nice though."

The man startled awake at her voice. He tilted his head and regarded her like a professional cook examining his perfectly prepared meal. Before Oreo could stop him, the man let go of him and latched on to the woman, burying his face into her skin as if to hide. She took a step back, but the man didn't let go and instead started rubbing his face on her chest. She appeared unfazed by this and just looked at Oreo before holding up an open palm.

"Usually, I'd demand for the full price, but since you're such a nice, innocent kid, I'll let you off on a discount. Two hundred bellies."

"Why do I have to pay?" Oreo asked, holding his hands up like he did nothing wrong.

"Look at this man," And that Oreo did, with a gaze that was full of anger, "he's in no state to pay for anything, plus I doubt he even has any money at all with his huge debt collection." She then patted his head when he whimpered uselessly, playing the part of the pathetic man way too well for Oreo's liking.

He grumbled and took out two hundred from his coin bag. He placed it in her palm and she gave it a long look before finally shoving the man's face off of her. "Time's up." She patted his cheek lightly and smiled at him. "Come back tomorrow okay?"

The man nodded quickly, but the movement caused him to get dizzy and he fell to the floor, getting glass cuts along one side of his face and his front side from when the woman had smashed her bottle earlier. The woman put the money she received from Oreo into the front of her dress and smiled at Oreo. "You too huh? I still got to ruin some of that innocence for you."

Oreo found his cheeks felt heated and presumed he was flushing again so he looked at the ground quickly, put his hands on the man's back and started half-dragging half-carrying this drunken man down the street since he appeared to have fallen asleep again. Damn, this was turning out to be one long night.

* * *

><p>"I'll have you know that I definitely live in a tavern. We should go to every tavern until we find mine." The man slurred out, his head down as Oreo dragged him through the gate that connected the harbour to the town.<p>

"You shouldn't drink another sip of alcohol ever." Oreo huffed, trying to catch his breath. "How are you not dead yet?"

"Fortune's wheel spins graciously on me!" He shouted out. He straightened and stuck out his chest proudly before bellowing. "Lady Luck is in love with me, so she cannot help but want to keep me alive! I live! I live! I live!" Looking satisfied, the man plopped down onto the floor. He started at wonder at the white, cold sand that touched his hands. "Where have you taken me?" He whispered, his eyes widening. "Have I done wrong to proclaim your love for me? Am I finally in the abyss?"

"That's just beach sand." Oreo explained, not sure who this man was talking to. "We're at the harbour now."

The man looked sceptically up at Oreo. "The harbour? Why would we go to such a place?" He asked, his voice having an indignant tone to it.

"I heard you lived on a ship, so I thought if you saw a ship, you would recognize it and then you would be home and I wouldn't have to look after your sorry ass anymore."

"My sorry ass must be great to look after though." He insisted, looking very insulted at Oreo's words.

"It really isn't. You're worse than my sister, and that's a pretty difficult accomplishment. You shouldn't be proud." He replied, bending down and looking at him in the eyes as he moved to sit with cross legs. His fingers played restlessly with the cool sand as he looked towards the harbour and even beyond that, to the ocean.

"Proud?" He finally spat, though Oreo was confused about that because the silence had dragged on for so long, he thought that part was lost in the conversation. Man, this guy was really slow to respond sometimes. "It was pride that once turned angels into devils."

Okay, now Oreo was even more lost with this conversation. What the hell did angels and devils have to do with anything? He figured he must be reaching the final stage of insanity so with a swell of pity, he held out his hand for the man to take and said, "Come on. You really need to get home."

The man allowed himself to be pulled up to his feet, but quickly clutched at Oreo's arms once he realized that he was heading to the very unsteady, floating planks that made up the harbour. "We go right into that woman's trap?" he asked, pointing at the boats and the water in front of them.

"'That woman?' You mean the sea? What trap are you talking about?" Oreo asked curiously. His arm was starting to go numb from how tightly it was being clutched.

"She tempts the greatest men so they fall to their knees and beg for power!" He said dramatically, placing the back of his hand on his forehead and closing his eyes. "And when they get power, they become powerless against her, and she laughs as she easily drowns them in the depths of the great blue!"

"How drunk are you?" Oreo finally asked after a slight silence.

"Guide me, oh bright candle light!" He shook him carelessly, "let me not fall into her death trap, for she would drag me down as I am nothing but a dead weight in the water!"

"Are you telling me you can't swim?"

"Devil woman! Devil woman with her devil temptations!" He shouted to the sky as if cursing it.

"I'll take that as a yes. Not to worry, I'll try not to let your sorry ass drown." He said as he used his shoulders to lift the man up. He quietened immediately and there was no fuss made as they got closer to the planks and eventually got on them. The man's grip did get a little tighter though, as the planks swayed as small waves lazily lapped below their feet. They kept on walking forward though and passed many ships. Oreo had to keep reminding the man to look for his ship, but no noise came from him so he presumed they hadn't passed it yet. They were getting awfully close to the end of the harbour, where his own little fishing boat rested, and had passed by most of the ships, but there was still no response from the man.

They reached Oreo's little boat, and there were four other ships beside it.

"Any of those four yours?" Oreo asked, shaking the man slightly to get his attention.

The man pushed himself away, and Oreo had to quickly grab his arm before he fell sideways off of the planks. He went to the ship that was right next to his little fishing boat and placed his hand on the front of it. He ran it along the bow, as if looking for something, and while he did that, Oreo took a good look at the ship.

It was pretty big, and looked to be built sturdy and strong. It looked unused though, as if it had just been staying in this harbour for a long time. It was made of dark wood, but the bow was painted white, as well as stripes of wood at the side of the ship, and the top of it looked bare. The sails looked like they hadn't been opened ever and the main deck was completely devoid of anything. How did someone even steer this thing?

"Aha!"

The man's exclamation brought back Oreo's attention to him and he straightened up and waved his hands. "This is it. This is mine!"

"Are you sure?"

The man nodded his head and pointed a finger to what appeared to be some weird carving right next to the bow.

"If found... call 578374...?" Oreo read out loud. "What does that mean?"

And as soon as he turned back to the man, a sleeping snail was shoved in his face. This snail was yellow, but strangely had the same thick, brown hair that this man did.

"It's my number. This is definitely my ship. Farewell candle light, you have guided me home." He laughed heartily before he brought out a long knife from some hidden pocket under the back of his shirt. With a mighty swing, he threw the knife and it landed on some weird rope hanging of the side of the ship, effectively releasing it and sending it down to where he was. He pulled on the rope and a compartment above their heads opened up to let loose some wooden planks that made steps to get onto the ship.

The man somehow made it successively onto the ship, but lay down as soon as he was on the deck. Oreo figured he had fallen asleep, so he turned to his own little boat to get some well-deserved shut-eye. His mission to get the drunken man home was finally over.

Suddenly, he heard some weird noises coming from up on the ship's deck, and he didn't see the man's bare feet dangling off the edge anymore so he must've been walking around and making a huge ruckus.

As Oreo was about to turn away to go to his boat, a sudden thought crossed his mind and he froze.

_What if he falls overboard?_

Then this whole night would've been a complete waste of his time! Oreo couldn't allow this, so he walked back to where he had been standing moments before and reached up to grab onto the wooden steps. He climbed aboard easily, and was shocked to see how big the main deck really was. It seemed to spread on for forever compared to his little, fishing boat.

"Drunken man?" He called out cautiously. Perhaps he had just gone down to the rooms to find a bed to sleep on. No reply came, so he decided to investigate.

He walked forwards and saw that there were numerous holes that had staircases leading down them throughout the whole main deck. As he explored a bit, he began to realize that this ship was built really awkwardly. There was a room at the back that had the ship's wheel and it faced the other way, but how could someone steer while looking behind him? The part of the ship that was meant to be in the back was actually at the front, and vice versa.

Perhaps that was the reason the ship looked like it hadn't left the harbour. Maybe it was just because it couldn't.

As he closed the door to the room, he turned and immediately got a fright as the drunken man stood right there.

"Ack!" Oreo made a strangled noise, then took a while to calm down. "What was that for?"

"Are you real?" The man asked, tilting his head like a confused sparrow. He looked behind him as if expecting something to jump up, but when nothing did, he turned back to Oreo, half expecting him to be gone.

"Why wouldn't I be real?" Oreo asked, confused. Just how crazy was this guy?

The man reached out to grab his face, but before he made contact, he swiftly pulled himself back and shook his head. He seemed to have some inner turmoil over touching Oreo or not, but finally decided to not to do it. Instead, he said, "You know, you shine so fucking brightly. I feel like I should be blind." Before Oreo could say anything, he carried on. "Like, if you were an ink drawing, you would be the white background, and I would be the ink. I am the ink. You understand?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. You must be over-exhausted to be saying such strange things." Oreo stated and took a step towards him, but the man stepped back, following his movements.

Oreo frowned and took another step, but he took another step backwards. Oreo ran at him, but the man ran backwards, always out of reach. With a start, he got this nostalgic feeling from when his sister had chased him around the living area to hold his hand, and he stopped dead.

The man seemed to grow bored now that he wasn't getting chased anymore and he wondered off to the other side of the deck. Once he reached the place where the steps were, Oreo called out to him. "Where are you going now?"

"I'm thirsty!" The man whined back at him, but he appeared to be having trouble getting his feet on the planks.

Oreo quickly went to him and pulled him back on the deck before he could get down. "No. You need to get some sleep."

"Sleep is for the weak!" He tried to yell, but it came out as barely above normal talking. "I'll sleep when I die!"

"You might die sooner than you think, 'cause I've never thought about killing anyone before, but I'm considering throwing you into the sea." Oreo replied, tugging on him.

The man stayed quiet then and Oreo was able to pull him to one of the staircases that led below deck. He helped the man get down and opened the first door to find what appeared to be a bedroom. He plonked the man on the bed, but the man immediately got up to his feet.

With a shove, Oreo managed to get him back on the bed, but the man wouldn't stay still. He tried looking for something to tie the man down with, but the only thing he could use was the leather belt fastened around his waist.

With a sigh, he pulled it off quickly and strapped the man's wrist to the bed frame with it. The man was too gone to get out of this puzzling trap because try as he might, he had no idea how to pull off this belt that restrained him.

Oreo sat down by the floor to make sure the man stayed and got some rest. Perhaps it was out of pity, or perhaps it was because of the fact that he didn't want this man to be this weird and sleep-deprived if they ever met again, but he felt this strange protectiveness overcome him, and he couldn't explain the feeling. Maybe it was all his years as an older brother that made him keep watch until the man finally fell asleep.

Whatever it was, at least now he was finally able to close his eyes and sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Okay... I'm having too much fun with this guy. Haha sorry, but anyways. I don't know how I written so much today, but wowza, the words kept coming and well, bam, three chapters just like that. It feels awesome. Just wanted to say that I hope whoever is reading this is enjoying it and feedback would be kinda good cause I have no idea if what I'm writing is actually enjoyable for anyone but me.


	11. A Promise to Return

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**A Promise to Return**

_ The sky was clear and blue as Oreo snuck his way out of the house. He had turned eighteen last week and decided that it was about time he set off on his own. As grateful as he was for the three years he spent with his father's family, he really couldn't stay. There were so many more exciting things going on around the world that he had to discover, and he wanted to meet interesting people to learn from them. He had read all the books in the library, knew almost everything about everyone on their little island and he felt like he was just wasting his time here. _

_And so, with a last look at the house, he slung his little bag over his shoulder and turned to the forest. There was a path there that led him to where he had placed a small fishing boat at the beach just a few days before and it allowed him to leave easily without saying good bye to everyone. He never really liked saying goodbye. _

_When he got to the beach, he had to stay in the shadows of the trees at the edge of it since a girl, around thirteen years old, was sitting in his boat, just waiting for him to come. He gritted his teeth in annoyance and swore. How did she know?_

_After having a quick argument with himself, he decided it was best to just go and send her back home, so he drew a quick breath and walked onto the sand. He tried to look angry that she was there, but it was hard, and the second she saw him, she just stood and waved happily as if she wasn't doing anything wrong._

_"What are you doing, Clarity?" Oreo asked once he got close enough._

_She had grown slightly taller in these past three years, but it still looked like she had inherited her mother's small stature since Oreo had a huge growth-spurt and she only reached the bottom of his elbow. Her light, brown hair was still untidily chopped to her shoulders, but her features weren't so babyish and she was growing up finely. She even wore skirts on the occasional day, whereas before, she wouldn't even go near one whenever Jose tried to get her into one._

_Clarity smiled at him and grabbed his hand. "We're leaving, aren't we?" she asked, her voice high pitched with excitement. _

_"I'm leaving." Oreo stated with an emphasis on the 'I'm', "I have no idea what you're doing here."_

_She frowned then, and placed her hands on her hips. "What? Why aren't you taking me with?" She snapped like she couldn't believe it._

_ "Look at you," he replied; shoving his bag into the boat, "you're only thirteen. You're too young to go out with me."_

_She sniffed, looking insulted, but then her eyes brightened. "But you have to take me with you."_

_"And why is that?" _

_"Because I'm as bored as you are here! Let's find adventure together. It'll be more fun that way!" she insisted, really trying her hardest to convince him to take her with._

_Oreo paused, as if in thought, then just quickly shook his head. "Sorry. Now, just run along home and-"_

_When Clarity grabbed on his arm, he stopped talking in shock. Her eyes were downcast as she quietly said her next words._

_"Please don't abandon me." _

_He felt a little guilty as this, and let out a long sigh. Gently, he removed her hand from his arm and pulled her out of the boat before turning her back to the forest. "Go on home."_

_Clarity spun around to face him again, but found she couldn't when his grip tightened. She thrashed around angrily for a few seconds before finally stopping. "But-"_

_"Just go."_

_"What? You won't even say goodbye properly?" She finally snapped._

_Oreo pushed her forward and she stumbled a little from the force of it. She turned to see him already with his back to her and he was attempting to push the boat into the water. She was about to run after him and jump into the boat again, but his voice stopped her. _

_"I'll come back and get you, and then I won't be abandoning you. When you're a woman, you'll be old enough and then we'll go on an adventure together. But for now, you're just too young, and I don't exactly know what it's like out there, so it would be like me taking you to your own grave."_

_Clarity didn't seemed too fazed by his words, and only really latched onto that hope that he'll return for her. "So, when I'm a woman?"_

_"Yeah and-_

* * *

><p>Oreo woke up with a start as cold water splashed onto the top of his head. This water rushed down the front of his face, sweeping his hat along with it, until it dripped onto his clothes and the floor, thoroughly soaking him through and through.<p>

After sputtering around for a few seconds, he sort of made some sense of where he was as he remembered the events of last night, and the man suspiciously looking out the door of the room, waving an empty bucket with one of his hands, jump-started his memories.

"Oi, what the hell was that for?" Oreo yelled, hitting his hat on the floor to get rid of most of the water.

The man by the door looked back inside the room, and with wide, dark brown eyes, smiled brightly at him before nodding his head down the hallway.

"Rise and shine! It's a beautiful afternoon!" He waved his hand volatility, and started strutting through the hallway to the stairs, yelling. "'Always it woke him, until this morning and this snow. If anything might rouse him now, the kind old sun will know!'"

With a final bow halfway up the stairs, he flung open the circular door that closed it at the top and went through, leaving Oreo staring in astonishment at the door to the room. What on earth was with this guy?

As Oreo made his way up the stairs, he was immediately met with the strange man peering down at him in confusion. Somehow, in that short time frame, he had lost his ripped shirt and the bucket and had uncovered a suspicious-looking container which he absent-mindedly moved in his grip as he stood back and allowed Oreo onto the deck.

He turned and took a swig from the container, but there must've been nothing in it since he immediately threw it behind him and almost hit Oreo on the head. As Oreo quickly ducked to the side to avoid it, the man turned and shouted, "Aha!" which immediately made Oreo freeze.

"What?" he asked.

The man sidled up to him, inspecting his face closely, taking off his wet hat, grabbing his shirt and waving it, then he raised an eyebrow and frowned. "I swear you guys are getting more real and real every time." He said to himself, walking a circle around Oreo.

"Stop assuming I'm not real! I'm right here." Oreo protested, all the confusion from the previous night and the anger from being woken up with a bucket of water coming up unexpectedly. He raised his fist and punched the man across his left cheek, though it probably hurt his fist more than it hurt the man's head because he hardly seemed to register this.

The man slowly rubbed at his cheek in thought, then said, "That was weird." He then smiled at Oreo, "Hey, you know what? Now that I think about it, you're the first one I've ever met that doesn't look exactly like me."

"That's because I'm not something you're just imagining."

"Well, that can't be." He instantly replied.

"Yeah, it can be."

"No, it's can't."

"Yes, it can."

"Can't."

"Can."

"Can't."

"Okay, stop!" Oreo finally said, getting annoyed with this. "Have you drunk anymore?"

"Lad, if I had drunk more, don't you think I would be somewhere else. This ship is as dry as a desert!" The man lifted his hands up dramatically and rolled his eyes. "For a hallucination, you're not very bright."

"Oh, for glory-." Oreo stopped himself and placed two fingers on his forehead while he closed his eyes to try and calm himself down. "Do you remember anything at all from last night?"

At his question, the man looked off into the distance, his eyes going unblinking. "I recall a bright light guiding me places." He placed his hand in front of him – palm facing outwards as if he were trying to grab something – and then looked at Oreo. "Though he was awful at guiding me anywhere. I went into at least seven homes, and I don't even live in a house!"

Oreo gasped, "You asshole, you remember everything!" He accused, pointing a finger.

"Well, duh. I'm not senile."

Oreo looked like he was ready to strangle this man. "Then why the hell are you acting so damn insane?"

The man thought for a while, but then just shrugged. "It seemed entertaining." Before Oreo could say anything more, he held out his hand. "The name is Axel, by the way. Thanks for finding me my ship. I've been looking all over for her."

Oreo shook his hand with a sceptical look on his face. "Oreo. It never occurred to you to look at the harbour?"

Axel had turned his back on him and walked towards the end of the ship. Oreo didn't really have another choice but to follow him since he continued the conversation anyway. "Surprisingly no, though it would've been a good place to look."

He then stopped, causing Oreo to bump into his back, and looked left and right. He quickly put his index finger in his mouth and out again, then lifted it up in front of him, as if testing which way the wind blew. He continued to look left and right, and after a few seconds, seemed to spot something. With a huge step, he went to the edge of the ship and leaned over the railing. With a grunt, he came back up empty handed. He turned to Oreo and motioned him over.

"Come 'ere real quick," he commanded. Once Oreo did so, he continued. "Now grab my feet and make sure not to drop me."

With a slight leap to the side and no other warning, Axel went over the railing and Oreo had to rush to grab his leg so he didn't fall down to the water. Oreo wasn't the strongest guy around, so he had a bit of difficulty holding him up, so much to the extent that he couldn't ask what he was doing. He did, however, see him take two throwing knives from some holder under his pants. With one knife, he chopped a rope hanging off the side, and with the other, he threw it above Oreo's head and it sailed upwards to the sky.

A loud clank sounded as Oreo pulled Axel back onto the deck, and something dropped behind them. With a joyful skip, Axel ran to the object and Oreo turned to see it was some sort of chest. Axel knelt by the chest and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. With an excitable noise, he opened the chest in a flurry of hand movements.

Oreo walked up beside him and looked over his shoulder to see the contents of the box. Disappointed, he only saw empty bottles and a pair of old black boots. Axel also seemed disappointed as he rummaged through and found that every single glass bottle was empty. Nonetheless, he took out the boots and placed them on his bare feet before closing the chest. In a swift movement, he pushed the chest with a strong arm until it slid away and into one of the circular holes with the stairs.

Axel finally turned to Oreo, who was starting to wonder why he was still with this weird man, and asked, "So, what brings you here? It's not exactly the best place to be now."

Oreo shrugged, too humiliated to say that he just took the wrong course and ended up on the wrong island, so instead he answered, "I'm just journeying about, you know, letting the tide take me wherever. I'm exploring, and hoping to meet some interesting people."

"What's the point of that?" Axel asked, slightly confused.

"Well..." Oreo had to think a bit, "It just excites me, I guess."

"Bah!" Axel pulled a face and waved his hand in a shooing motion, not too impressed. With a jump, he got to his feet. He turned and sauntered on towards the mast near the front of the ship. Oreo sighed and followed him, now just curious to see what his next strange antic would be.

Axel seemed to examine some of the many ropes the hung down from the top of the mast. He pulled on one experimentally, but seemed unsatisfied. He turned away with a frown, and went to the side of the ship, near to where the steps were. He got up onto the railing and gripped the rope the hung there. He gave it a light tug, then smiled and turned to Oreo.

"Strange sir, I wash my hands to your weirdness!"

Oreo thought he could say the exact same thing. With that all said and done, Axel jumped off the ship and used to rope to swing onto the planks of the harbour. Oreo casually walked to the side and peered over to see Axel with his arms open, looking very impressed with himself and looking as if he wanted praise for that. When none came, he simply waved his arm.

"Come on, yer little maggot." He commanded Oreo, who just frowned. "I'll show you how to really live your life."

"And where would we be going?" Oreo asked, opting to go for the steps instead of swinging down, just in case he missed the planks.

Axel puffed out his chest and announced, as if the whole world was listening to him, "There will be no other tavern open unless it's in the Pirate Square, so we're going there."

Oh God, he wanted to go drink _again?_ Just what was he thi–

"Wait, what's the Pirate Square?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Well, sorry that this chapter is a little weird and slow, but it had to be done. Just one of those things, I suppose. Also, I wanted to apologize for the beginning of this story since it has moved/will continue to move at a slow pace, but I just want to build a firm enough foundation to continue on with later, if that makes sense. I dunno, it just always helps me, as a writer, to have a nice, slow beginning to build up everything. Sorry for the selfishness haha.

Replies to reviews:

MeatLover2014 - Oh, thank you for the feedback! I thought about what you said about making this as a prequel and although I do agree with that logic, I think I'm just going to keep this whole thing as one story because everything that's been said so far and that is going to be said in upcoming chapters are all very important for things coming in later chapters and that pattern will continue on like that. I guess I'm also just too lazy for everything in different stories as well. Oops. Haha, anyways a devil fruit to do with destiny? Huh, that's interesting, but I guess you'll see in later chapters. Thanks again for the feedback!


	12. We Should Change The World

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**We Should Change The World**

"This is the Pirate Square, my friend!" Axel announced as the alleyway suddenly opened up into an open area. It was similar to the rest of the town where the buildings surrounded them like cages – and as with how most of the buildings were either closed down or taverns – but it was a lot busier than any other part of the town. People hustled about through jostling crowds, market stalls were up and running, and people sat by the fountain in the middle and played card games. It seemed pretty peaceful for a place filled with pirates.

Oreo was about to ask Axel why exactly it was called the Pirate Square, but a big man ran up to them and ushered them over to what appeared to be his stall. The man looked old, with grey hair trimming around the edges of his otherwise black hair, but his eyes shined brighter than many who were younger than him.

"Bets, you gotta place your bets young lads!" He then pointed to the wall behind his stall where a whole lot of wanted posters were stuck up on display. "Alliances, enemies, emperors, warlords, king. All you could possibly want to bet on is right here, so how about it. You young 'uns care to take a gander?"

Axel inspected the wall while the man waited patiently. Oreo observed all of this because he had no idea how he was supposed to act around all these over-bearing people. It was a mission and a half.

Axel then turned to the man. "Liar, these are just a whole bunch of newcomers. Where are all the big names?"

"This is the new generation, kid." The old man scoffed, "These kids are your age, probably even younger than you, and are making the waves sky rocket in the Grand Line. Soon, they'll reach the legendary New World, and I bet they'll take down the current emperors. Those fools are getting too old for that job, you know?"

Axel looked frustrated. "That doesn't mean you can count them out. They've survived this long, there's no way a bunch of runts will take them down before one of them becomes king."

"So, you reckon one of the emperors will be Pirate King, eh? Which one, come on, spill the beans?" The old man sidled up to Axel expectantly.

Axel shoved him away, "None of your business."

"But this is my business! It pays for the food on my plate at least."

"Fine." Axel then raised his hands to the air, as if he were signalling the sky. Oreo looked up, but could see nothing but a few distant birds and the blue sky. "I think that a pirate will find the One Piece, but I think he's not going to be any of these guys," he pointed to the wall, "or any of the bigger names. I'm not even sure it's going to be a 'he', cause what I'm thinking is that it's going to be a they."

"They?" The old man looked confused.

"Think for one second, will you? Sure, you get the captains and their first mates and that's usually all anyone ever focuses on unless they have some undeniably strong guy in the ranks, right. But the thing is that it's not one single person who would find the One Piece on his own, no, it takes a whole crew to accomplish something of that magnitude! No one, single person will be the Pirate King. That's what I reckon."

Oreo found himself drawn to this conversation unexpectedly. Sure, he had heard of the legendary One Piece and that whoever found it would be richer than imaginable and famous beyond belief with the title of the Pirate King added to their name, but he had never thought of it in that kind of sense. He never really understood how people gave up their whole lives for something that may not even exist, but he figured that must be how Axel saw his travelling around and meeting interesting people adventure. Everyone thought differently, after all.

The old man scratched his chin in thought, but once he realized that people had heard Axel's theory and were looking doubtful towards their newly made bets, he waved him off. "Get going then, if you're not betting. A weird kid like you is bad for business."

Axel frowned at being denied his due attention, but accepted it nonetheless. He turned to Oreo, but Oreo stayed where he was, words trying to form in his head.

"So... if you know so much, does that mean that you're a pirate?" Oreo finally asked.

Axel looked appalled and put one hand in between them as if he was about to lecture him. "I believe I prefer the term 'lowly treasure hunter'."

"But that is just a pirate."

"Ah, but treasure hunter is a much more glamorous title, don't you think?" Axel asked enthusiastically. "Plus, you don't get chased down by the marines as much. Hell, I don't even have a bounty and I stole from the famous Grehd Island a couple of years back."

"Woah wait." Oreo's eyes widened. "You mean to tell me that you were one of the pirates that stole the richest island in West Blue dry?"

"Treasure Hunter." He corrected with slanted eyes, "And no, I was not a part of that particular crew. I'm not part of any crew really. I was, however, there at the time and was fascinated by two things the king kept for himself, so I just stole them in all the madness."

"You sound like it's no big deal."

"Listen here candle light," Axel started, poking him with his finger, "when you've lived most of your life where the only option you have is to steal, then it's simple. It's no biggie." With that, he brought out a wallet that was neither his nor Oreo's. "See, stole this off the old geezer and he didn't even feel it. It's one of my many talents."

Oreo took the wallet and opened it to find a considerate amount of bellies inside. He whistled before handing it back. "I suppose another one of your talents is bragging?"

Axel threw his hands up in the air in glee. "My talents range far and wide, my dear friend. There is no end to what I can do."

"You couldn't find your boat without me even when it was in the most obvious place." Oreo stated with a frown.

Axel waved a hand as if he didn't care. "Details, details."

He then led Oreo around the fountain; nearly tripping over someone passed out, and indicated an alleyway to the left. "That place there is the cheapest, with the cheapest women as well if you wish, so I'm gonna treat you well."

Oreo almost flushed, but managed to control it. He quickly tried to turn, but Axel stopped him. "I've got to go, I'm in a hurry, you know?" Oreo said, pointing down from where they had come.

"Nonsense! Let me treat you to an afternoon of fun." Axel placed his hands on Oreo's shoulders and squeezed tightly until he had to cringe under the pressure. "I'll look after you, you don't need to worry about one little thing."

* * *

><p>"And you two stay the fuck out!" A man hollered after throwing both Axel and Oreo out of his tavern at the same time.<p>

Oreo groaned in agony as his back hit the concrete path outside, instantly igniting immediate pain. The three-year old wound hadn't healed properly at all, so his back had been left in a scarred, burned, disfigured mess that acted up if something hit it too hard.

He struggled to stop himself from screaming, but he was able to roll onto his stomach to try and take off some pressure. It still hurt like hell, but it was better than lying directly on it. Suddenly, he felt the back of his shirt being lifted up, and he heard Axel gasp loudly.

"Man, that looks nasty. Never would've thought you'd have a wound like that. You don't seem like much of a fighter." Axel slurred out his words drunkenly.

"I-it wasn't ex-exactly from f-fighting." Oreo gasped out, struggling to speak as his back throbbed with pain. He felt his shirt being pulled back down, but then it was pulled back up quickly. Oreo supposed it was to stop his shirt from getting blood all over it since he knew some of the skin had become broken. He froze as he felt a drop of the blood oozing from his wound roll down his side until it met with the floor beneath his stomach. He convulsed instantly, not quite being able to stand the thought of how his back probably looked. All red and oozy and... bloody.

He nearly gagged then, and he felt his stomach drop to an almost sickly level. His heart started to beat really fast in his chest, so fast that he thought it might explode instantaneously, but it just continued to rapidly pound until it started to hurt him.

"Hey, you okay, man?" He heard Axel's voice but he couldn't respond.

There was no way he could. He tried to get to his feet to get away from the pain in his chest and on his back, and from the panic stuck in his mind, but as soon as he tried, his back spasmed uncontrollably. He found he couldn't move at all and this just added even more panic to his already unstable state of mind.

Suddenly, amidst all of this, the panic stopped and everything turned black.

* * *

><p>When Oreo next opened his eyes with a start, he found himself to be in the exact same spot that he had been before, except for the fact that his torso and upper back was wrapped in some sort of thick material. He was still lying on his stomach and his head hurt like hell.<p>

Turning his head to the side, he saw Axel sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him, leaning against a wall with a half-empty bottle in his hand that he was just staring at. After a few minutes, he finally seemed to notice that Oreo was awake, so he took a sip, though it seemed to be completely forced, as if for the first time since the two of them met, he didn't want to drink.

"You feeling okay?" He finally asked after more silence. "I wasn't sure what else to do other than wrap it." Oreo stayed silent, trying to get over the embarrassment of being so incredibly weak when it came to his back and his fear of blood, so Axel continued to speak. "Holy shit, that was scary. You were shaking so much, and your hands were going everywhere and you didn't seem to register anything. In all my life, I ain't never seen fear like that, and I thank Lady Luck she's watching over me cause, dear God, that must be hell to go through whenever your back acts up."

Oreo moved then, delighted that he actually could without it spasming, until he could kneel. He checked the weird bandage that he had never really seen before. The material was coarse on the outside, but incredibly soft on the inside and he felt really secure with it. It seemed to hold his back together perfectly so that it didn't spasm when he moved.

"What's this material?" He asked, fascinated by the strange feeling it provided. He hadn't felt this comfortable with his back since before the accident that caused the wound.

Axel seemed to think for a while. "Erm, stole if off someone, so I don't know."

Oreo raised an eyebrow at that, but found he couldn't care. He sat down from his knees. Axel handed him the half-empty bottle, but he refused. Having drunk for the first time, he hated the way it felt like he was pouring fire down his throat. That burning sensation just left him uncomfortable and feeling like he was about to choke.

Axel shrugged, but simply placed the bottle at his side. "I dunno why, 'cause I normally don't feel bad about doing anything to anyone that causes them harm, but now I feel kind of guilty since I knew we were going to get thrown out to the dumps like that. Maybe it's cause you shine so bright."

Oreo sighed. "You keep on saying that, but I don't understand it. I don't shine."

"No, trust me when I say that you shine." Axel shook his head. "You know, these past few months have been truly hell, and I feel like I've been suffocated and drowned and left in the dark all on my own, and you come with your bright-ass light shining all over the place, and you lifted my sorry ass out of that hell, only a little bit though, and –"

"You're not making much sense."

Axel paused to look at him, but then smiled as if he found some sick humour in a sad situation. "I guess it wouldn't..." There was a long pause before he continued. "But hey, don't you agree with me that this strange and cruel world could do with a bit of a change?"

"Huh?"

"Well, take a look around you." Axel commanded, "We are literally in the dumps. It's like we're trash, and I bet people all over feel like they're trash, or even worse than trash, but they just try make it through like that. It feels like we're trapped in our own belief that we are more inferior than we really are. And it really fucking sucks."

"It's like people aren't actually free..." Oreo realized, his eyes going wide. "The people in this town all act like they're free, but when you look really close at them, they look pretty sad. They're not free from themselves."

"I'm not free," Axel declared, finally deciding it was time for him to take another swig of his drink, 'cause this conversation was getting really heavy. "I'd like to be though. I'd like this whole world to be free."

There was silence as they both kept to their own thoughts.

"We should make it free." Axel finally said, and when Oreo turned to him, he was looking ahead of him as if looking at something that wasn't really there. His eye twitched and he suddenly beamed brightly. "Yes! This has to be one of the greatest ideas that I've ever had in my whole entire, pitiful life!"

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Oreo asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

"We've got to think about this logically okay?" Axel started, his usually dull eyes lighting up as this concept ran through his head. "This world is mostly made up of the sea, you know, oceans that go on forever, so if you control the oceans, the land would instantly bend to your will. And you know who controls the oceans?"

Oreo straightened abruptly. "Wait, wait, wai-"

"No! No more waiting around for brighter times." Axel declared, trying to stand up now. It didn't quite feel right for him to be making a huge declaration while sitting there quietly. Once he was up on his feet, he threw his hands up in the air, but had to lean against the wall to balance himself. "It's the Pirate King! The Pirate King rules the ocean! We need to be Pirate King to change the world!" And with that said and done, he started laughing maniacally and uncontrollably.

There was a pause.

"We?"

"Yeah, we." Axel confirmed, struggling to talk properly through his laughter. "We should also gather a crew of some sort, for one man cannot call himself the Pirate King. No one could get that title without some help." His voice grew bolder with every word. "_We're_ going to find the One Piece. _We're_ going to be crowned the Pirate King. _We're_ going to change the world!"

"I don't think it works that way."

"Well, then, we'll make it work that way." Axel insisted, glaring down at him.

"Are you saying I must be a pirate with you?" Oreo asked, a little confused about the situation.

"Do I need to spell everything out for you?" Axel was getting annoyed now. "You said yourself that you're on some journey to meet interesting people, and together, we will. We'll even make 'em join our crew. We'll all travel the world together and search for that legendary treasure. When we become Pirate King, we'll shake the world right off its axes and start a world so equal and free. I'm tired of constantly being thrown to the dumps and being treated as if I'm nothing more than a speck of dust measly thrown into the air from a little breeze. I'm so sick of drowning in my own, little pool of misery and darkness and self-pity. You, my friend, are the brightest light my eyes have gazed upon in months and you need to let that light shine on everyone else. Hey, maybe I'll even start to shine." He then beamed brightly, amused at the thought that he might shine one day. "This is a great idea!"

"You're drunk."

Axel laughed. "Drunk on my hopes, maybe."

He then grabbed Oreo by the arm and pulled him up, completely forgetting about his back problems. Luckily, the weird material worked miracles and Oreo was able to stand without it hurting too much.

Axel started to tow him throughout the streets of the Pirate Square, pointing all the while. He pointed at a couple of people with dirty hands and torn clothes scrunching outside a tavern door, getting cut by the broken glass as they begged to be let inside.

"We're going to change that." He said.

He then pointed at all the different kinds of situations; scrawny children who were running around like little lost sheep, women who all but threw themselves at the men for a little bit of money on the side, and the pirates who fought tooth and nail since they were so far gone that they didn't even realize why they fought.

"We're going to change everything!" Axel announced to the world as the two finally stopped by the fountain in the middle of the square. In all his excitement, Axel managed to drag Oreo into the fountain and proceeded to dance around him, jumping here and there and splashing the men playing cards, earning himself several death threats. After a couple of seconds though, Axel suddenly collapsed, as if something weakened him greatly.

"Damned sea water," he mumbled, too weak to even curse out in his usual exuberant fashion.

Oreo had to drag him out of the fountain then, and he managed to just get him onto the floor. Axel lay there, panting heavily as he tried to get his strength back. After a minute or two, in which Oreo had taken to attempting to dry his now sopping clothes, Axel recovered enough to look up. He spotted someone, and jumped to his feet.

"You! Join our crew!"

He reached out and grasped the stranger – she was a woman – by the shoulder, yet as she turned to question him, he completely froze.

His quirky smile had disappeared in an instant, replaced by a confused scowl. His eyes glazed over, as if lost in a memory, and the hand on her shoulder started to shake violently. His grip tightened as his eyes narrowed, and he took a hold of her other shoulder in the same fashion. The woman squeaked from the pain, and dropped the bags she had been carrying.

"Why have you-" Axel started to ask, but stopped when he couldn't find the words to say anything. The woman's golden eyes widened in both shock and fear as she had no idea who he was. "Devil woman!" He finally screamed at her with all his might, and she nearly crumbled in his hands.

"What the hell are you doing?" Oreo finally asked angrily, as he got in between them and shoved him away. Axel tripped backwards over his own feet as he could barely register anything but the memory of orange curls and golden eyes.

He shook his head violently, as if trying desperately to get rid of the memories, but that didn't seem to work. He cried out in agony, clutching at his head and ripping at his brown hair.

Oreo apologized to the woman, who scurried away in an instant, but when he turned back to find out just what was wrong with the man, he found Axel had already disappeared from his sight.

Just what was going on with him?

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Man, this was meant to be up on Thursday to celebrate making it to the midpoint of exams, but damn, it's been busy. Sorry! Anywho we have one more chapter to go before they set out to the seas and then we start their adventure together. It's all still part of one arc, even though we do get a time skip again, but I still feel as if all the information I'm putting out through and about these characters is all relevant so you're not just reading unimportant things in these chapters. I hope everyone is enjoying this and thanks for reading! Hope you have a good day!


	13. Decisions Decisions

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

_**Decisions... Decisions **_

Oreo spent the rest of the afternoon – along with the whole night – looking for his new friend. He had seemed so panicked from seeing the woman, though the woman had no idea who he was. No matter where he looked, no matter what tavern he walked into, he just couldn't find Axel.

And so, as the sun started to lazily crawl out of hiding, Oreo arrived at the harbour gates. He walked through and on towards the planks where the boats were, all the while swatting his black hat on his leg to get rid of some of the dust that still clung to it. It annoyed him to see it dirty.

He thought to check Axel's strange ship first, in case he found his way there, but after checking through all the rooms on the bottom floor, he found it to be completely empty. The ship itself was sort of eerie since he was on it alone this time, and he wanted to get off of it as quickly as possible. Its odd design and creaky deck freaked him out, were he to be truly honest.

As he climbed down the little steps back to the planks, he looked over to his small fishing boat and it looked a little odd. Once on the planks, he made his way onto his own boat and picked up the thick cover that was all scrunched up and gathered at the back of the boat. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw Axel lying under it, mumbling something about goddesses and how the sun was a bastard, but none of that made sense to him. He was also curled up into a ball and hugged an empty glass bottle. He seemed to have lost his shoes again and his shirt laid half off the boat and half in it.

Oreo felt pity clutch at his stomach at the sight of this guy. It was just sad.

Bending down, he picked the glass out of his grip, nearly getting smacked off the boat in the process, and got his shirt out of the water and left it to dry in the sun that was coming up. Axel was a restless sleeper, it seemed, since he had somehow made it to the middle of the boat simply by wiggling about. His hands reached out and grabbed at nothing and he never stopped mumbling. Eventually, Oreo just put the cover over him again just so that his sleep-talking was muted a little, but he seemed to grow even more restless under the darkness. Oreo frowned and sat at the edge of the boat, opting to try and get some sleep since he had no idea if this man was ever going to let him have peace again.

* * *

><p><p>

It was late afternoon by the time Oreo next opened his eyes. The sun beat down on his eyes painfully at first, and he couldn't see much for the first few minutes. With a groan, he sat up and rubbed at them, trying to ease the discomfort.

Upon opening them again, he looked around and found that he wasn't where he fell asleep. He was at the front of the boat, and everything had been moved aside to make space for him to lie down. His gaze travelled upwards and he saw Axel sitting at the back of the boat, his legs crossed as he simply gazed out to the sea. Tiny waves rocked the boat only slightly, but the wind was heavier than it had been this morning and Oreo thought that a storm might come their way soon.

"I've gotta leave this place before I drown."

Axel's voice startled him greatly, and he nearly jumped from hearing it. He looked at Axel's back, but the man hadn't turned around to acknowledge him yet, so perhaps he was just talking to himself. There was silence for a long time after that and it allowed Oreo to think a little.

Eventually, he stood up and joined Axel at the end of the boat. He was probably going to regret this. He was probably going to hate every minute of it. He was probably going to die pretty quickly. But, he needed to help him somehow.

It was like there were several strings pulling him in multiple directions. Some strings went the same way, almost parallel to each other, while others went in all different directions. The strings connected at different places too; some to his head, some to his feet and some to his heart. Some strings were pulling harder than others while some were so loose you might as well not even consider bothering about that string. These strings were his decisions.

And the decision to help Axel was pulling at his heart with so much strength; it may as well have been ripped right from his chest.

"Do you still want to be Pirate King and change the world?" He finally asked, feeling all the others strings snap and the one Axel pulled only tightened, making him flinch.

He looked up to see Axel staring at him, his deep, brown eyes wide with shock. His expression immediately grew from surprised to thoughtful to gleeful and he only beamed brightly before jumping to his feet.

He grabbed Oreo's hand in a huff and shook it violently before first slamming it against his chest and then he slammed it against Oreo's.

"Now we're a two-man pirate crew!" He announced, letting go and jumping to the middle of the boat.

With his answer, the string finally loosened and Oreo felt like he could breathe again. He was a little surprised at himself to be so relieved, but even more surprised to find that it was because he found Axel too interesting to actually want to leave.

Oreo found that Axel's excitement was contagious, but he couldn't exactly act on it because he wasn't exactly sure what being a pirate actually meant. Did they now have to go find some gold? Or perhaps raid an island? Maybe get caught by the marines to get a bounty?

Oh God, he had no idea how to be a pirate. Didn't they fight a lot? He had no idea how to fight! He couldn't stand the thought of fighting.

"Wait..." Oreo quickly said, stopping Axel before he could jump down onto the planks. Axel turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "I can't fight."

Axel scoffed, "Everyone can fight."

Oreo looked at the ground, still embarrassed, "I can't with my back like it is. I can't because I don't know how to. I can't because I can't even think of b-b-bl... the red stuff without having to pass out from the panic. I can't-"

"I'll teach you."

"Aren't you listening? If I fight, there'll be red everywhere." Oreo insisted, starting to shake from the image coming into his mind.

"Sheesh, you've got arms as weak as sticks. They'll hardly do enough to break the skin never mind any bones. You aren't some demon that can't control himself. You're a kid. You shouldn't worry so much about that." Axel replied, giving him a serious look. "I'll teach you how to fight without fighting."

Oreo couldn't make sense of this, but before he could talk even more nonsense, Axel sighed and nodded towards his boat. "There's still a lot you need to learn, I think. There's also a lot of stuff I need to learn, so we can teach each other. But we should start now. If I stay any longer in this place, I don't think there would be much me left to leave."

"We're going in your ship?" Oreo suddenly asked when Axel turned to it.

Axel looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Your little fishing boat won't get us very far." He sounded extremely insulted. "Two people will be enough to sail West Blue but we'd need at least five people before we head to the Grand Line. I heard there's some mountain to climb."

Oreo nodded, but he was still wearily watching the ship. It was just so awkwardly built. How on earth were they meant to sail that? "I know of it. I've read a lot."

"Mr smarty pants, are you?" Axel teased, jumping onto the planks and heading towards his ship. "You know how to navigate then?"

Oreo wanted to say he did, because he was book-smart about it, but he had no experience. Hell, he even sailed to the wrong island on his first adventure, so he couldn't really say he knew how to navigate.

"I'm learning." He decided to say, puffing out his chest and grabbing his bags off the boat. It wasn't a complete lie.

Axel looked ecstatic. "That's a great way to start a crew. Wow, we already have a navigator. This is going to be easy."

"So what, then that makes you the captain?" Oreo asked, not really sure if he was or not.

Axel seemed to contemplate this. He would've enjoyed the attention but...

"No," he shook his head. "This pirate crew isn't going to have a captain. I'll just be the 'outrageously good-looking, manly crewmember who all the women fawn over'."

Oreo scoffed and finished gathering his belongings. Axel had already made his way on the ship and was watching him pack up. "Quite the title you have there." He stated, making his way to the planks.

"I know. It's quite fitting as well, I think." Axel rubbed his fingernails on his shirt in a snotty manner, before regarding them with a professional eye.

As Oreo started climbing up the steps, he asked. "Don't you think it's a bad idea to not have a captain?"

"Well, I ain't going to listen to anyone ordering me around, and I don't like telling people what to do, so no, no captain is needed." Axel insisted. He just wanted to be different to everyone else.

"But a captain is more than that, I would thi-"

Oreo was interrupted by Axel. "There won't be a captain, and that's final!" he ordered.

Oreo found himself smiling as Axel walked off to the other side of the ship, his hands twitching in annoyance and he grumbled to himself. He was a weird fellow.

"What are we waiting for?" Axel called out when he made it to the room that had the wheel at the back of the ship. "We're setting sail!"

Oreo made his way over to the room and deposited his bags on the table inside. This ship was so bare, it was a little freaky.

"So, how do we sail this ship?" Oreo asked, looking over at Axel who appeared to know what he was doing.

Appearances aren't always what they seem, however, since he merely shrugged and exclaimed. "I have no idea! You're the navigator, you should figure it out."

"How'd you get in this dock then?!"

"I can't remember. It was a while ago I think." Axel rubbed at his chin in thought.

Oh boy, this adventure as a pirate had a rough start, but the waves soon smoothed out and everything fell into place. Once they figured out how the ship sailed, they went to various islands around West Blue, all the while learning what they could about what it meant to be a pirate. Oreo learned how to fight and became so good at navigating that after the fifth time of getting to the wrong island, he made no mistakes after that and they managed to land at every island they intended to land at. Axel wasn't such a quick learner though, for there had still been nights where he drowned himself and ran off only to return a few days later all beaten and bruised up. They learnt a lot about each other too, so much so that it turned out there was a reason Axel couldn't swim other than incompetence. They became close to brothers. No other crew members joined them until three years had passed, and when Oreo realized what year it was, he knew they were going to get their third member soon. It was just as well, West Blue was beginning to look small compared to what still lay ahead of them.

* * *

><p><p>

**Author's Note:**

Have you ever just smiled when you've written something very symbolic and just has so much foreshadowing? I have :) .

Haha, I was going to do little snippets and moments that happened during this three year time skip simply for interest's sake, but I'll do that for the next chapter since I've reached my 2K word limit I have. You'll learn quite a lot from the snippets, so just keep them in mind as we move further along in the story. Until then, hope you enjoy your day!

PS. Any manga readers I can cry with? I thought I was ready for Cora-san... but no. Just no. Damn Oda for all these feels. How is he so amazing at making such lovable characters? It breaks my heart!


	14. Snippets From The Three-Year Time Skip

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Snippets From Three-Year Time Skip**

They had been on the sea for a couple of days already, after leaving Bosca Island behind, and Oreo and Axel sat in the room with the ship's wheel.

Oreo had tossed a little book to Axel from his bag, and he caught it before giving it a look with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?" He asked, opening it and paging through the first few pages that were filled with hand-written notes.

Oreo shrugged, then thought for a little to find the words to explain that, little book. "It's what I've been using to document the islands I've heard of."

"Why would you do that?" Axel asked, already at the point where there were no notes at all.

"Well, it's just interesting for me. See, the first two pages are about my home island, and the next two are about Sandleu Island, where I lived for a few years, and then it's about Bosca Island. I have a couple of other islands where I've just heard rumours about, like Grehd Island, but I haven't been to them yet." He then paused and took the book from Axel. "I was thinking we could travel to where the book tells us, and I also wanted to make maps of the islands for future reference."

Axel sighed and leant back against the wall, taking his hands up to let the back of his head rest against them. "All that work... for what exactly?"

Oreo tugged the book closer to his chest and he smiled. "It's sort of like a goal of mine; to visit all these different islands and document these visits for others.

"A goal?" At Oreo's nod, Axel sprang to his feet in a flurry, and grabbed him by the shoulders. "That's great! I'll help you with that then." He straightened his back then, and placed his hands on his hips with a smug look.

"Help? How would you do that?" Oreo asked, confused.

"You know how I said I have many talents?" Axel asked, leading Oreo out of the room and down one of the holes in the deck to a room that had the door closed. He carefully opened the door and ushered Oreo through straight after he nodded.

The room wasn't very well kept, but it had a large table with loads of containers that held what appeared to be ink. Quills rested on the desk along with paper stacks that hadn't been used yet. Axel went to a chest on the floor and opened it. That released a storm of dust that caused both of the men to choke for a couple of seconds. He swatted away the dust and reached into the chest to dig out papers that had been used.

"Well," Axel announced, turning quickly and holding up the papers, "One of my many talents is drawing and painting, so while you do all the hard work with mapping out the islands, I'll just make the maps look good."

Oreo took one of the papers he held up in his hands and looked at it with wide eyes. It was slightly faded and felt fragile in his grip, but the ink drawing that was on the old paper was of a woman, and that woman looked vaguely similar to the woman who Axel had freaked out about in the Pirate Square a couple of days back. They both had orange curls, but this woman on the page had golden eyes. In the picture, she was surrounded by the sun, almost as if it was swallowing her whole, and she simply looked at the ground by her feet sadly. What got him most was the huge scar that ran from the top of her forehead, across her face, over her nose and all the way down to the side of her neck.

Axel quickly snatched the picture from his grasp and shuddering, he tore it up, watching as the little pieces fluttered to the floor. He had already torn up some other pictures, presumably of the same woman, and there was a pile of torn pieces of paper by his feet.

Axel shook, but took a deep breath to calm himself down. He placed his hand over his face and rubbed at his eyes hurriedly. As if to distract himself, he quickly sprung up and motioned to a picture he had drawn of what looked to be a long fish with brightly coloured spots on his scales. "See what I can do!" His finger touched the paper, and it instantly started smoking. Thick, grey smoke piled off of the picture, but strangely enough, the fish started to wiggle about on his page. Its large eye blinked a couple of times and it gave a large flip of its tail, resulting in the tail seeming to literally pop out from the paper. With a few more thrusts, the colourful fish was flopping on the floor, and the paper it had been on was empty.

Oreo's eyes were so wide; they might as well have popped right out of their sockets. "What-"

"I ate a Devil Fruit." Axel stated, not sure whether to make a proud expression, or a depressed one. "It's why I can't swim."

"You're a Devil Fruit user?" Oreo didn't want to believe it, but it was hard not to when the fish from the ink drawing flopped at his feet. "Why did you not say anything about this before?"

Axel tched. "A lot of people don't take too kindly to Devil Fruit users. I've had enough of people hating on me for things I couldn't quite control."

"So, you were forced to eat a Devil Fruit?"

Axel cocked his head to the side in thought. "I guess you could put it that way."

"What... Wait, actually, I don't want to know how you came to eat a Devil Fruit." Oreo sighed, not exactly in the right state of mind to deal with the confusing man. "What fruit was it, though?"

"It's called the Ink-Ink Fruit." Axel stated, and raised his finger at the fish, and in a poof of smoke, it disappeared. It was back on the paper, in exactly the same position it had been. "Pretty useless so far. It allows me to bring things in ink to life, or basically just control ink. I can't eat the creatures that come off the paper, and they poof back into the paper when they're hit hard enough, so they aren't exactly good for fighting with either. The only use it's been to me was that it produced that material for your back and it seemed to help."

"You made the material?" Oreo lifted his shirt to look at the material that was still wrapped around his torso and upper back. "I thought you said you stole it."

"Well, I didn't want you to know I was a Devil Fruit user, so I just said I stole it off someone." Axel shrugged. He then brightened considerably. "But at least I can help you with your maps. This'll be fun, no?"

Well, Oreo could only hope so.

* * *

><p>It was a few months in their journey where they had gone to the wrong island and had to quickly escape because there was a marine there who Axel, apparently, owed money to. They were on the deck of the ship, and Oreo was looking up at the sky and the clouds, thinking that it was going to rain later.<p>

Axel had been silently working on something in the middle of the deck, as he had scrolls he picked up from the previous island surrounding him, and he was drawing with his ink on them. Oreo had taken out his Island Journal and was writing on it about the island they had just been on.

An hour passed when there was suddenly a loud 'pop' coming from Axel's direction and suddenly there was a sword in his face when he looked up to see what the noise was. There was a complete stranger, dressed in long, traditional robes, who held the point of a very sharp-looking sword right in between his eyes.

"Uh... who is this?" Oreo asked, too shocked to move from his position. His eyes flitted over to where Axel was still seated among his scrolls, but there was thick smoke that came off of one of them.

"I'm going to use him to teach you how to fight." Axel stated, and then another popping sound rang through the deck before he reached into one of the scrolls and brought out a sword. "The last island reminded me that a pirate's life isn't exactly an easy one, and you need to learn to defend yourself."

The ink stranger flicked his wrist sideways and the sword chopped off a bit of Oreo's fringe as he just managed to move back so his nose wasn't sliced off.

"Surely, this isn't nece-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, the ink stranger jumped at him and he was forced to jump back lest he get cut from that vicious sword. He was chased across the deck and tried to get Axel to get rid of him, but he merely handed Oreo the sword to defend himself. Oreo's hands shook as he grasped it, and since he couldn't handle even holding it, he simply flung it to the ground where it immediately evaporated from the force of the fling.

He finally remembered that whatever Axel summoned from his ink drawings were extremely weak and poofed back into their paper whenever they were hit hard. Steeling himself, he faced the oncoming ink warrior who was running at him with his sword raised. He felt panic frantically wallow in the pit of his stomach, but he had to ignore it.

As he watched the ink figure come closer and closer, he found himself so finely in-tune with his movements that somehow, he had this strange inkling he knew where he was going to strike. Deciding to trust his natural instinct, he knelt quickly once he was close enough, and swiftly moved to the left to dodge the oncoming swing. Not knowing what else to do, in a panic, he swung a closed fist and knocked the ink warrior on the side of his head. He disappeared after hitting the floor.

Axel whistled. "You've got a good eye there, almost as good as someone I know." He stated, and then frowned. "But then again, I also know women who throw punches harder than that. The fucking floor was the thing that made it disappear."

Oreo was breathing heavily, not quite used to this exertion, but he found himself wondering about Axel's comment, and thought he was making a reference to the woman in his painting with the orange curls. Did he used to fight her? Did he learn to fight from her? Why did he get into such a state whenever he saw anything resembling her? None of it made sense.

"Again."

Before he could even say wait, the ink warrior was once again alive and coming at him with renewed strength. As he ran away with curses stringing from his mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his back which nearly made him topple to the floor. He had to stop and grit his teeth and clutch at his back which was covered in the miracle material. He had no idea how he was supposed to learn how to fight like this.

As he tried to rest by hiding behind the room with the wheel, he felt little droplets of rain fall from the sky. He looked up at the overcast sky, and then moved his body to look back at Axel. He was just in time to see the ink warrior vanish as the rain hit it, and Axel grumbled to himself as he hurriedly tried to pack away his scrolls before any serious damage could come to them.

Oreo leant back in relief, glad he didn't have to fight anymore today since his back was starting to act up from all the over-exertion. He hoped that, somehow, his back would get stronger with regular training and that, in the future, it would take more than a run and a punch to get it to act up. He had already accepted a long time ago that it would never heal properly, but maybe he could make do.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Well, there's quite a lot revealed in this chapter, some of them being as big as a flashing board saying "Look right here! I'm important!" while another thing is quietly hiding in the shadows, chuckling as people regard it as something they can just brush off. There's only two snippets, and it's all I really wanted to do for now. I think I'm going to do another chapter that shows their time in this three year gap, but that would only come later. Next chapter, we really start this journey and we get their third crew member so I'm kinda looking forward to that. Hope everyone whose reading this is enjoying it and feel free to say what you think so far.

Also, I'm using the English name for the Devil Fruits simply because my knowledge of Japanese is very limited and don't really feel comfortable using a langauge I don't really know well.


	15. I'll Be A Pirate

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**I'll Be A Pirate**

_Three years later..._

Oreo stood at the front of the ship as an island came into view just beyond the horizon. He grinned like a mad-man as he took in the familiar cliff that stretched up into the sky, so much taller than any other part of the island.

"We're almost there!" He cried over his shoulder at his companion, who soon joined him a few moments later.

"That's Sandleu Island?" Axel asked sceptically, reaching up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun glaring at them above their heads.

The two of them had grown quite tremendously these past three years.

Oreo, now at twenty one years old, had grown tall and lanky, his head nearly hitting the top of whatever doorway he went through. He was still slim however, and he hadn't developed much muscle, but he was certainly not the stick figure he had once been. His black hat still rested on top of his mop of dark hair, and his hazel eyes were filled to the brim with excitement. He had come out of his shell slightly since meeting Axel and as the two progressed further throughout West Blue, he had learned well to be more outgoing and not so serious about everything.

Axel, on the other hand, was twenty two years old now, and his brown hair that had once been short now grew to his shoulders and it had been fixed into messy-looking dreadlocks tied with beads of different colours. A bandana was tied around his neck, but it would often be used to keep the hair out of his face. There were no longer dark rings under his eyes from many sleepless nights and his clothing didn't reek of alcohol as much as it used to.

"The one and only." Oreo replied, then faced back and went towards the mast. He pulled on a couple of ropes and the ship started to go to the left slightly from the wind hitting the sails at different angles. "We'll have to land behind that cliff though, so we're not seen. I don't think this island has ever seen a pirate ship before, and I don't want to panic anyone."

"Blah blah," Axel snorted and crossed his arms as he gazed at the island coming closer and closer with each long minute that passed. "Though, it's not that surprising that pirates don't come here. It's way too difficult without going through the trade route, but then they would spot you miles away."

"Even if they spotted you, none of the people on the island would be able to do anything about it..." Oreo paused in thought as memories flickered through his mind. "There aren't any more fighters." He then smirked. "Luckily pirates don't know that."

"And it looks really boring. Pirates don't like boring places." His companion stated matter-of-factly.

"Hah!"

* * *

><p><p>

It took them around an hour and a half to dock behind the cliff, and Oreo turned to Axel to tell him that he mustn't leave the ship on its own. Axel had shrugged and said he wouldn't leave, so Oreo went into the forest west of them to go to the town. That had been a couple of hours ago, and Axel was bored as hell.

He had grown tired of slinging flat rocks across the ocean water, and watching them bounce along the waves. He had grown tired of drawing figures in the sand with a stick he found. He had grown tired of staring up at the cloudless sky, and so he left the ship on its own.

He wandered the way Oreo went, and luckily the forest had a clear path to take from all the footsteps trodden on the floor. He simply followed that path until it eventually opened up into some fields. He saw that these fields had a town just beyond them and decided, well hey, why not go find something to do in the town?

So he made his way over the fields, but a thought stopped him. He recalled Oreo saying that the population of the island was really small, so they would notice him and ask questions since they had never seen him before. He really didn't want to have to deal with all of that effort. He then made it a personal mission of his to not be seen by anyone, since it made this little outing kind of exciting. He had great skills for sneaking around, and just knew he wouldn't get caught by anyone.

This knowledge proved to be downright wrong when, after about twenty minutes of sneaking around inside the town, a voice questioned him as he lay hidden behind a low wall, near what appeared to be a library since when he looked in through the window earlier, books were strewn everywhere.

"Who are you?" The voice asked.

Axel lifted his head upwards, grumpy that his little game had already been interrupted. He saw a girl, probably around sixteen or seventeen years old, looking at him as if she was not impressed with his hiding spot at all. How dare she?

Axel's nostrils flared and he shot to his feet at once, placing his index finger on the girl's nose. He sneered at her shocked reaction. "Little girls should be more careful about who they talk to."

The girl frowned, swatting his finger away. "And you should be better adept at sneaking around. I've been following you for nearly twenty minutes."

Axel clutched at his heart, clearly insulted. "Watch your tongue, bit-"

He was interrupted when she crossed her arms behind her back and cocked her head to the side, regarding him carefully. "Are you lost?"

Axel straightened and laughed in her face. He really didn't like the way this little girl talked to him. "You're awful brave, little girlie, for coming up to a man of my power and stature. You're lucky I haven't sliced off your head yet"

She frowned yet again, her eyes narrowing. "You're the one who's lucky to not get their head sliced off."

"Hah! What? With those little twigs you call arms?" Axel mocked childishly.

"I could do it easily!" She insisted, stamping her foot stubbornly. "With a blade of grass, even."

"You're so pathetic, I can't even laugh." Axel stated, crossing his arms.

He really angered her now. She shut her hands tightly into fists and they shook at her sides, all ready to punch him. Before she could, however, her face suddenly lit up in understanding, and she smiled brightly, bringing her hands up to clasp them together in joy.

"You're just like Gerrard!" She exclaimed, looking at him with wide, expectant eyes.

All Axel could think was _who the fuck is Gerrard?_

Before he had a chance to reply, she grasped his hand like a giddy school girl and tugged on it. "If that's the case," she started slowly, "then I'm the heroin!" She then pointed behind her to the town, "I'll assist in helping you sneak around."

Axel put up his hands in the air; feeling like it's been way too long since he left the ship. "No. Just run along and forget you ever saw me." He waved both of his hands at her in a shooing manner.

"But you got here by ship, no? You'll need help getting back to it without being spotted." She insisted, not really wanting to leave.

"How would you know that?"

"It's pretty obvious that you're not from around here, and how else would you be on this island?" She scoffed.

"I could've flown... you wouldn't know." Axel countered, and her eyes widened so much that he thought they might just pop out of their sockets.

"You can fly?!"

Axel gave her a look that said he thought she was an absolute idiot. "Yeah, I'm done talking to you." He stated, turning around and shoving his hands in his pockets to walk away.

The girl jumped after him and walked beside him, a little skip to her step.

"Go away. Go home." Axel growled, baring his teeth at her to try and be intimidating.

She shook her head quickly. "I must be a good heroin." She insisted, and then continued. "And I wouldn't be good heroin if I didn't help you to your escape ship."

Axel pouted then. "Whatever, little girlie."

Again, she frowned deeply when he called her that.

* * *

><p>"This is your ship?" The girl asked once they were out of the forest and back on the beach.<p>

Axel turned to her swiftly and shot out, "You got a problem with that?"

She regarded him, and then the ship, thinking it weird that he would be the only one on such a big ship. But she shook her head nonetheless, not wanting to argue anymore with him. They'd spent the whole walk here exchanging blows and she was growing tired of it.

"Since I've been such a good heroin, don't I get a reward?" She asked, looking up at him with hopeful eyes.

Axel grunted, "so that's what you were after, you little vixen? I don't have any money, so shoo."

The girl shook her head slowly, and took a step to get closer to him. "I don't want money." She whispered, and Axel's eye twitched. No way...

"Hey Axel, sorry I'm so late, but I can't find Clarity anywhe-" Oreo's voice stopped abruptly when he finally walked out onto the beach and noticed Axel wasn't on his own. The girl's eyes widened in shock and she turned to Oreo so quickly, she kicked sand at Axel.

She stared at him, and Oreo stared at her, both freezing for a minute or so. Suddenly, the girl ran towards him and when she was close enough, she just jumped and wrapped her arms around his torso. He had to take a step back from the force of the impact, and he stared down at the light brown hair that had grown so long in three years. He was glad she came running to him, because he could hardly recognize her. She no longer had her hair cut short like a boy's, and was also wearing a dress that reached just above her knees and he had never seen her dressed like that before. It was strange. He didn't think she would've become so... girly?

"Clarity?" Oreo asked, just to be one hundred percent sure. Her arms squeezed him in response. "You've grown quite a bit." He commented, smiling down at her. Sure, she only reached his chest when she used to reach his cheeks, but his growth spurt had been ridiculous in the last three years, while she hardly grew. She was short like her mother.

"You're late." She said, and he felt her hug him even tighter.

"Sorry," He said simply, placing his hand on the top of her head and patting it. "It took longer than expected to get here."

"You're late by almost a year." She repeated, looking up at him.

"Scared I abandoned you?"

She shook her head. "I've been ready to leave since my birthday."

"Sorry... again."

Clarity finally released him, and a sudden thought crossed her mind. She turned to where Axel stood, slightly awkwardly, and pointed at him. "Who's that then?" She asked, confused. She thought this was meant to be_ their_ special adventure.

Oreo led her to him, and he crossed his arms, hardly able to believe this annoying brat was Oreo's sister who they had been hoping to add to their crew. Oreo introduced him. "This is Axel. He's... uh, he's my partner."

Clarity flinched, and her cheeks brightened slightly. _Oh. That's why he didn't react to my whole 'reward' stunt._ She thought to herself, looking between the two boys. _So, he's not quite like Gerrard..._

Oreo turned to her and scratched the back of his head, looking as if he were trying to figure out how to tell her something. "Erm... Listen here, Clarity. I became a pirate, and I was hoping you would join our crew."

It took a while for this information to sink in. "A pirate?!" She yelled, and Oreo was just glad this beach was so far from the town. "How can you be a pirate?"

"It just sorta happened." He stated, shrugging.

Axel nodded, deciding to add in his input. "When the ocean calls you, you've got to answer her, girlie. D'you hear her? Is she calling you to her great depths?"

Clarity's eyes widened and she strained her ears, but there was no strange voice calling her name. So, she turned to Oreo again and frowned. "You go off to meet people and you come back as a pirate. Of all the no-good, lying, deceitful–"

"Look, I just thought to ask." Oreo said, sighing. "If you don't like it, you can just stay here."

"I'll be a pirate." She stated suddenly, as if she had never argued against it in the first place.

And without another thought about what the future really held, Clarity gathered her things, and left with Oreo and Axel on their ship without saying goodbye to anybody. She wasn't sure what might be ahead, but she was sure it would be far better than the quiet island she had been stuck on. She was extremely bored there and Sandleu Island was like a desert providing nothing at all for her thirst for adventure.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Hiya! So, now that this story is getting underway, I'm getting pretty excited. So far, I have around thirteen arcs planned, and eleven crew members thought of, but I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with other crews they can interact with, along with the seven warlords (I have like one), the four emperors (I have two) and marines (haha nothing for them), so if anyone is willing to submit a couple of OCs, that would be awesome. I'll put the forms on my profile, but if you're interested, just PM me and ask and I'll let you know of anything you need to know. So, yeah, cool.


	16. Maps, Rivals and a Tiger

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Maps, Rivals and a Tiger**

It had been a few days since Clarity first boarded her half-brother's ship. She still hadn't explored all of it because it was simply such a large ship with so many rooms under deck and whenever she asked either Oreo or Axel to give her a tour, they would say they were busy with something or another. She hardly even saw them and didn't know where they were when they were busy. So when she happened to stumble past a room where she heard voices talking, she immediately burst through the closed door.

At her sudden intrusion, both Oreo and Axel looked up from the desk where they were pointing and gave her a surprised look, as if they had forgotten that she was on the ship in the first place.

"Clarity? Where have you been these past few days?" Oreo finally asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Clarity frowned, "Lost!" She exclaimed, then pointed an accusing finger at them. "You two left me all alone to wander."

Axel chuckled. "Aww, is this ship too big for the little girlie?" This remark made her fume, and Oreo shot a warning glance at his friend, who made a point to ignore it. "I guess we should have suspected it. The ocean wasn't calling your name, was she?"

"You can shut your trap!" She snapped, her arms shaking from the verbal attack on her pride. "What are you two doing anyway? And why did you leave me out of it?" She demanded, her voice never losing volume as she marched up to the table.

She noticed a couple of open notebooks, along with two maps and one unfinished one, all splattered over the desk.

Oreo replied, not wanting Axel to in case he decided to rile her up again. He had forgotten she had a temper like this when it came to being left alone. "We're making maps. We have basically most of West Blue mapped up from these past years."

Clarity looked over the papers, seeming to be in thought, and then shot a look at Axel, who glared back at her. "Why's he here, then? This is your handwriting."

"Well, we both do the maps, you see?" Oreo started, passing a finished map over to Axel, who just sighed as if this was way too much trouble. He took the map, nonetheless, and laid it out carefully. "I do the graphing, and the complicated measurements, while he makes it look good."

Before Clarity could ask what he meant, the map had come to life in a popping sound and she flinched from the unexpected surprise. She scurried over to the 3D map to get a better look at it.

Axel manipulated it, and her eyes grew wide as the map of the island zoomed in to show the town. It had all the paths and the buildings in intricate detail, along with some people who were going about their business. It was as if someone had taken a painting and animated it. The details were clear and as Axel took two fingers and slid them along the island, the picture moved and followed his hand, showing her exactly what kind of island it was.

Her eyes followed the movements eagerly, and she was disappointed when the 3D map flickered out of existence back to the normal one on the paper.

"That's nothing." Axel boasted, taking a larger paper and unfolding it to show a different map. "That was the first one I ever did, but I've gotten a lot better at it. I made it so that even other people could control it. Here." He grabbed her hand and flattened it over the middle of the island. Her cheeks went red since she wasn't used to the contact, but Axel let go quickly, and started to instruct her. "Now, slowly move your hand up and the map should follow."

That it did. Clarity gazed at wonder as the ink stuck to her palm until it stopped once it reached the specified height. This island had a tall mountain on it, and Oreo had to take over to make it go all the way up since she was too short. She touched the 3D map, and like Axel had done, used two fingers to slide across it, ultimately moving the map left. She used her other hand to point at one point that looked like a village of some sort, and moved her two hands apart so that it zoomed in. After inspecting the village and the kind of people that lived in it, Axel told her that she just needed to squish the top back into the paper to make it go back to normal, and Oreo did that for her.

"Is this a Devil Fruit power?" She asked since her mind could not find any other explanation for this strange wonder that happened before her eyes.

"Huh, accepting just like Oreo." Axel mused, folding the maps back. "It makes those moments I was scorned so much worse, since I now know what it could have been like."

And just like that, the older man left what was deemed 'the map room', leaving the siblings in stunned silence.

* * *

><p>"It feels so good to be back on solid ground." Clarity bounced on her feet happily. "The constant wave motion is hard to get used to."<p>

Axel groaned, shooting Oreo a look of despair. "How can you stand her? All she does is complain."

"You do that too." Oreo scoffed, shaking his head in amusement. He then stopped and regarded them, thinking of an idea to get them a little more used to each other since all they ever did when they saw each other was argue and fight about stupid, weird things. The two of them stopped and looked back at him, wondering why he was giving them such a strange look.

"Hey guys, I was thinking of trying to find a book store. Would you two mind shopping for food while I go?" He asked.

Clarity frowned deeply. "Don't leave me all alone with him!"

"You dare go against Lady Luck's wishes for me to be happy?" Axel asked, crossing his arms in an indignant manner.

Oreo sighed and shoved them forwards together. "You two are impossible. It's only a few minutes together, I'm sure you'll survive."

As he watched them walk towards the market place in the town they were in, all the while shouting insults at each other, he thought that maybe they might not survive if they carried on like that. Someone would be sure to kill them for being too loud.

He turned left and walked up the long hill, following the path. He asked a stranger if there was a bookstore in town (he thought he might as well go to one), and was guided by a child to the store which was on the other side of the town.

"Here you are, mister." The child said, pointing his tanned hand towards a building wedged in between a house and what looked to be some sort of cafe.

Oreo thanked him, and the kid ran off in the other direction, calling out to some other kids. He trotted into the store, and breathed in the familiar scent of hundreds of books, finding an odd sort of comfort as he walked through the aisles and browsed the sections. He noticed there was a section in the back that had a bunch of maps, and he walked over to it. He started inspecting them, and his eyes grew wide as he opened one that showed a clear path heading to and from Reverse Mountain, which was said to be the only entrance into the Grand Line that didn't send you to be a snack for a bunch of sea monsters.

This was a remarkable find!

Oreo took a few moments to look at this map thoroughly, to confirm its usefulness, and just as he was about to fold it again, a voice behind him startled him out of his wits.

"Is that Reverse Mountain?"

Oreo turned quickly to come face-to-face with a well-muscled man. He only came up to his chin, but his large arms made Oreo feel small. He had blonde hair that was cropped short so that it stuck up like he had been electrocuted. He wore a black, sleeveless shirt that was tucked into brown shorts and big boots. On his upper arm, there was a long, black bangle that circled around twice, with the words "For Family" with silver on the outside.

"No." Oreo instantly lied. He had learned well from Axel on the art of deceit.

"You're lying."

Okay, so he hasn't learned that well, but you can't say he wasn't trying at least.

"What of it?" Oreo asked, deciding to just go with it since he'd been caught anyway.

The man placed his hand in between them, palm facing upwards. "I'm gonna need that map, son."

"Well, I'm not giving it to you."

The man's hand tightened into a fist and Oreo just had enough time to duck before that fist flung towards him. It hit the wall instead, and punched a hole right through it.

Oreo's eyes widened and he cursed in his head. Just then, the owner of the bookstore came running at them, waving his arms around in distress.

"You two can't fight in here!" His voice shrilled out. He was of average height, with dark hair, an angular face, a skinny frame and a bright pink shirt with the words "Bookstore Boss" written on it in cursive.

The large blonde growled and turned on the bookstore owner with an intimidating glint in his eyes. "You can't tell Beau the pirate what he can and cannot do!" He roared.

The owner's eyes narrowed in an unimpressed manner. In a flurry, he had grabbed hold of both the big blonde and Oreo, and spinned his way to the exit to throw them out, looking more like he was putting on a graceful performance rather than throwing two pirates out of his store.

With apparently no effort on his part, the owner simply threw them both out and they skidded on the street. The owner dusted his hands off and gave them a teeny wave, revealing that he had taken the map out of Oreo's grasp before throwing him. "You two sweeties can sort out your shit outside, okay?" He smiled.

The blonde, Beau, stood up and was about to open his mouth to make death threats, but the owner shook his head a tutted. "Sort it out or I'm not selling this map to either of you."

Considering how easily the owner had just thrown both of them out, Oreo actually preferred having to slug it out with Beau rather than try and battle with the owner to simply steal the map. Beau must've had the same thought process since it literally took him but a few seconds to start his assault on him.

Oreo jumped back to avoid a swing of his arm, and jutted his shoulder out to dodge another hit. He was suddenly glad of the hours upon hours of training that Axel had insisted upon, for he felt light and agile compared to the brute strength this blonde man relied on.

"Are we really going to fight to buy a map?" Oreo puffed out, his eyes widening as Beau brought out two long knives. They curved in the middle, and had thick, wooden handles entwined with interesting scriptures.

"If you can think of another way to resolve this, go ahead, son." Beau replied, swinging both of his knives down swiftly.

Oreo neatly chopped at the handle of one of the knives, and twirled around the other man to get out of range of being fatally stabbed. As the one knife cluttered to the ground, Oreo immediately waved his hand about cause it hurt him more than he thought it would have.

"Ow, ow, ow" He muttered, trying to somehow get rid of the pain he inflicted upon himself. "Bad idea."

Beau suddenly burst out laughing, showing off his teeth where one of his canines were missing and one of his incisors were golden. "Hah! My Ulop and Polu are a lot more sturdier than you think. They aren't very nice to hit."

He picked up the fallen knife and Oreo had to quickly re-gather himself. In a panic, he tried to punch this other man, and by some sort of miraculous luck, managed to avoid the knives coming for him to successfully punch him in the gut. The man doubled over in shock, not expecting the punch to do so much damage, and Oreo grew confident.

He placed his hands on his hips, and laughed, but stopped abruptly when he felt his feet go out from underneath him.

_Shit!_ He thought as his back hit the street and Beau placed his knife across his neck.

"You really shouldn't be so confident around a pirate." Beau teased, softly gliding the knife over his neck. Oreo felt the cool steel and his heart started to pound in panic. He eyed out the blade and struggled to keep still so that it wouldn't cut him.

"I'm a pirate too." Oreo managed to whisper, averting his eyes from the knife to Beau's.

The other man scoffed. "Not much of one, clearly."

Before Oreo could reply, Beau was suddenly knocked off of him by what appeared to be a medium-sized dog. This dog, however, vanished in a poof of smoke immediately after making contact. Oreo scrambled to his feet and looked down to see Axel and Clarity. Axel had a scroll opened in front of him, and grey smoke was curled around it.

Suddenly, a gun-shot sounded and a bullet shot through the scroll, just managing to miss Axel's foot as he jumped out of the way in surprise. Everyone turned to see a woman sitting on the roof of a house, with a long sniper strapped to her back. In her hand, however, was a simple pistol where the bullet had obviously come from.

She had long, black hair that was kept out of her face with a red bandanna. On her chest was a poofy vest that had bullet straps underneath it. She had two holders for guns on her thighs and a pouch was strapped to the belt of her shorts.

"What a shame you interrupted that." She called out to Axel and Clarity, tossing her pistol in the air so it rotated. She then placed it back into its holder on her left thigh. "Beau was just about to take out that chump."

Axel scowled at the insult to his friend, and threw the ruined scroll of his shoulder. Clarity stood tall and defiant, though it looked a little ridiculous with her holding shopping bags with food. Axel turned to Oreo, who was staring at Beau with a strange look. It was a look of anger, shock and regret all meshed together in this huge mess.

"What were you fighting about?" Axel asked, going to stand beside him. After shooting another glare at the girl on the roof, Clarity followed swiftly, dragging her shopping bags with her.

"A really important map for Reverse Mountain." Oreo replied, not breaking eye contact with the blonde pirate in front of him.

The woman on the roof jumped off of it to stand beside Beau. She smirked at Oreo, and cocked her head to the side. "A map that you just lost to my Captain."

Before anyone could reply however, a loud sound emitted out and suddenly up the street, the bookstore crumbled. In a hurry, the five of them ran up to the destroyed building where the bookstore owner was lying unconscious in the rubble of what was once his beautiful store. Destroyed books lay about everywhere and paper still fluttered to the ground. Beau and Oreo looked on in shock at the countless maps that lay torn up and quickly scurried around to pick up all the pieces, hoping that the one for Reverse Mountain wasn't too badly damaged.

After collecting all the pieces and putting them together, with the help of Axel, Clarity and Beau's crewmate, they discovered that the map they wanted wasn't even there.

A timid head popped out from the cafe next door, and the young girl called out to them.

"If you're wondering who did that, there was someone who walked out a few seconds before the building collapsed. The owner was yelling at him for stealing, and he held a large, folded up paper in his hands. Then the bookstore just crumbled and the person disappeared instantly." She said this all very quickly before fleeing back inside to the safety of her cafe.

"Well, this sucks." Beau announced, crossing his arms. "We're fighting for the map, and someone comes to steal it right under our noses!"

"If it means anything, that unconscious guy over there in the pink has been muttering about a tiger for the last couple of minutes." Clarity said, pointing to the unconscious bookstore owner.

"A tiger? Are you sure, 'cause I know you can be hard of hearing sometimes." Axel sneered at her, clearly trying to start up another argument.

Clarity immediately jumped to her own defence, "Listen here, you little –"

Oreo sighed and pulled them both to stop this petty argument. He then started walking away. "With the map gone, there's nothing left to do here. We better get back to the ship." He said, his voice sounding a little cold. Perhaps it was from his hopeless fight.

As they walked away, the two pirates looked after them, not really seeing a point in doing anything to them.

"What do you think, Klarisse?" Beau finally asked.

The woman smiled and laid a hand on the small gun strapped to her thigh, flicking the holder open in suppressed anticipation. "I think we've got ourselves a rival pirate crew." She announced, her smile turning into an arrogant smirk.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

So, I think I'm going to put a character's list up on my profile so you can have something to refer back to as we move further along in the story. I just also wanted to quickly thank Condor-K for all the help with OCs cause you are making amazing OCs and I don't think I can ever thank you enough for taking some time to do some. I hope everyone reading this enjoyed and hope you enjoy your day as well!


	17. A Royal Girl's Handmaid

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**A Royal Girl's Handmaid**

A few weeks passed until they finally arrived at another island to stock up on food supplies. None of them were very good at cooking so they mostly kept to dishes that didn't require much skill or effort, especially after Clarity had gotten a slight case of food poisoning from when she thought she had fully cooked a fish, but she didn't.

The island they were on had a town right by the docks, and the guards by the harbour weren't all too fussed about pirates coming into town since the group of three didn't even get stopped or threatened. It was a little weird, since there was always some form of hostility that met them, but they soon found out that there was a big marine base situated right in the middle of the town, so the townspeople thought pirates would be no trouble at all. And Oreo, Axel and Clarity didn't intend to make any trouble. They really just wanted to get food, so who would've thought their coming to the island would be such a fuss?

* * *

><p>"Axel, help me," Clarity grunted, dragging the bags behind her.<p>

Axel turned to face her and placed his hands on his hips. "It's part of your training. You'll get stronger by carrying all the bags." He insisted.

Oreo couldn't help but laugh as he could hardly even see his half-sister amongst all the bags piled over her arms, shoulders and hands.

The bags shifted, and he could feel a life-threatening aura start to emit from Clarity.

"You could help too." She said coldly, and Oreo's started to shiver.

"Don't give in!" Axel shouted, his eyes widening as he grabbed Oreo's shoulders before he could take some of the bags. "This is for her own good."

Clarity sighed. "I still can't believe there are only three of us. It's so much more work." She started to walk forward again, slowly moving along the market place.

Oreo followed, and placed a hand on his chin in thought. "That is true. We're getting closer to Reverse Mountain, and I don't know if we'll be able to make it with only three of us."

Axel followed him, but there was some strange feeling that they were being watched at the back of his mind. He paid no mind to the siblings talking about getting a new crew member, and looked around them to try spot any suspicious-looking people. The market place wasn't too crowded, but there were multiple eyes on their group. He could feel it from how the hair at the back of his neck stood up stiffly. It was highly uncomfortable.

"Hey, dumb-ass."

He didn't even hear Clarity calling him, he was too focused on the thought that they were being watched.

"Uh, Axel?" Oreo turned back to him since he had stopped. He walked to him and waved a hand in front of his face, ultimately snapping him back from his focused state.

Axel narrowed his eyes, deciding to ignore his two crewmates in favour of glaring at two young girls who started to walk up to them.

The girl in front was younger than the girl that trailed behind her. She was probably only ten or eleven years old, but everything from what she wore to how she walked screamed royalty. Even though she was shorter than them all, they way she looked up at them when she stopped was more like she was actually looking down at them.

The girl behind her stopped when she stopped yet had a blank expression on her face. She wore a black dress with an apron over the front so they could only assume that she was probably the younger girl's handmaid. She looked around Clarity's age.

The younger girl pointed to Oreo smugly, and rings adorned her fingers. Axel thought they would sell for a pretty hefty price, so he wanted them.

"I heard you were looking for a crew member." She announced, and smiled a cocky smile their way.

Clarity looked bored with this as she placed her bags on the floor. "No one would want you."

The girl frowned, and suddenly flicked her curled blonde hair over her shoulder. "Ew, I wouldn't want to be filthy pirate scum." She scrunched up her nose in disgust, then gestured towards the maid behind her. "However, you can take her." She insisted. "I'll even let you take her for free."

"Your generosity knows no bounds." Axel said sarcastically, which caused the younger girl to glare at him. The maid's expression hadn't changed at all.

"She's a great cook, so you'll never go hungry." The younger girl continued, and placed a hand on the maid's back to push her towards the group. "All you need to do is get her out of my sight."

The maid stumbled forwards, but quickly straightened before Oreo could help her. She stared at the group of three for a few seconds, then stared ahead of her as she stood on alert between the group and the girl.

"Why do you want her gone?" Oreo asked, feeling a strange rush of sympathy for the maid.

"She's weird. Ever since she was old enough to serve, strange things kept happening... like magic, you know? It's all her doing, but she won't admit it." The look the younger girl gave the maid was cold then, but the maid didn't even have a reaction. "And daddy won't take her to the streets because he says it's hard to fund such a talent for the kitchen, so you must just take her away before her weird black magic starts affecting me."

Oreo looked really shocked at this point. It confused him how one person could treat another the way the little girl treated the maid. Axel and Clarity had turned away from this conversation, having already lost interest and figuring that this wasn't their problem. Oreo found he could only stay rooted to the spot, however, and when he looked at the maid to see absolutely no expression on her face or eyes, he wondered if she was even human.

Oreo took a step forward, ignoring the blonde, and stopped in front of the maid. He thought she should have a say in this. "Do you want to come with us?"

Axel and Clarity abruptly turned back, both surprised at the question. They didn't want some expressionless, maid-girl with some weird magic walking the deck of the ship.

The maid didn't reply, and is just shoved into Oreo by the younger girl.

She sneered at the maid, then addressed Oreo, "It's just as well you're taking her. I was going to pay someone to shoot her and throw her in the dumps." She stared at her servant then. "You hear that, witch? I was going to kill you, but sending you off with some pirates will probably be more painful for you. Wait until they start seeing your little, black magic tricks. You'll be living in fear for the rest of your life. That's what you deserve for being a witch!" She finally screeched. She turned away from them with a huff, seeing this as a done deal, then walked away with her nose in the air.

The servant straightened her back, since she had started to slump over as if the words her ex-master had spoken had weighed down on her. She then turned to what she regarded as her new owners and walked up to where Clarity held all the shopping bags full of food. She bent and picked up the bags as if they were nothing, then stood waiting for a command.

Axel's eye twitched, and he rounded on Oreo, throwing his hands everywhere in exasperation. "What the hell are you thinking?!"

Oreo looked pretty calm about this, and waved a hand with a grin. "I just found a new crew member."

"What? I thought you wanted interesting people in our crew? And what's she going to do with that scrawny frame? I bet she would hardly be able to unfurl a sail!" Axel was just saying whatever came to mind to counter this decision, and completely ignored the fact that she easily carried the bags that Clarity had struggled with.

Oreo seemed to think for a while, then turned to acknowledge the maid-girl. "She'll be our cook then."

Clarity shot a look at him, "what about her black magic? We can't have a witch on our ship."

"There's no such thing as magic." Oreo scoffed, the addressed the girl. "Hey, what's your name?"

The girl looks at him and immediately responds with. "Servant girl number seven."

"That's not a name. What's your real name?"

She looked down at her feet then and showed her first emotion since meeting them; uncertainty. "My name is Pepper." She replied then, straightening to look at him.

"I'm Oreo, and those two are Axel and Clarity." Oreo introduced, pointing to the remaining crew members in turn. "Welcome... I guess."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Eep, sorry for such a short chapter, but there's so much to come on the next chapter, I thought it would be better to stop right there. Also, sorry for the long break, I just wanted a few days after exams where I can literally just sit and watch anime. I didn't really feel like writing, haha, but I'm back from the break, yay!

So I wanted to say thanks to Condor-K, Alder Wand and AddictWithAPencil for the amazing OCs, they're really helping out a lot and that's awesome. Next chapter should be a lot better than this one, so I'm looking forward to that. Until then, hope you enjoy your day!


	18. What A Weird Marine

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**What a weird Marine**

Oreo, Axel, Clarity and Pepper still stood in the market place, all huddled together in an awkward group that kept silent. Oreo rubbed at the back of his neck, thinking to himself that they should probably show their new crew member to their ship, but the way this girl looked at them in turn with expectant eyes made it feel like she wasn't a crew member at all.

"So, do you need to get anything before we head back to the ship?" Oreo asked, hoping to get a little information from the expressionless maid.

She turned her eyes on him. They were such a dark shade of brown they were almost black, but he could tell they were brown from the hazel that circled the edge of her irises. They were large too, but they looked out of place on her blank face. He figured they would fit nicely with a smile.

With a quick bow, she murmured. "There is only one thing I would desire to take with me, but it is in my quarters."

Axel frowned, "Well, what is it?"

She straightened her back, but averted her eyes as if she didn't want to tell him. Clarity walked up close to her and stretched out her fingers to grab Pepper's chin so she couldn't look away.

"What? Does it have something to do with your black magic?" Clarity asked, her grip tightening slightly. As much as she was trying to put on an intimidating front, the thought of black magic really frightened her.

Oreo quickly clasped Clarity's wrist and pulled her hand off of Pepper's face. His mouth was quirked down in a deep frown and he held her wrist so tightly that it was red when she finally got out of that grip with a yelp of surprise.

"Stop doing that!" He hissed at his sister, who glared at him while rubbing at her wrist. "I told you. There's no such thing as magic." He turned to Pepper, and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Where are your quarters? We'll go with you."

"That is not necessary." Pepper replied, looking at each sibling in return.

Before anyone could reply, the market place seemed to suddenly fill up with a lot more people. Strangers ran past them in both excitement and panic, and Oreo froze when he saw a couple of Marine soldiers ahead. They all had long rifles in their hands as they ran.

One, a really young-looking man in the lead, ordered two other men with him while he sent the others off in the opposite direction. The three of them approached the group, all looking identical except for one at the back who had a certain sluggish, lazy tint to the way he walked.

The leader stopped in front of them, and his loud voice boomed out, which annoyed the hell out of Axel since they were literally standing right there. There was no need to shout. "Orders from King Yutta! Arrest those afflicted with the disappearance of Servant Girl Seven! Seven has been identified; the perpetrators will be taken care of immediately!"

The three pirates found themselves wondering why it was necessary to announce this; now they knew they were going to get arrested.

Axel made the first move, and removed a long knife from its holder by his hip. The Marines immediately threw their guns to the floor and got into a fighting stance. Oreo swiftly knocked the first one on the jaw, while Axel slashed with his knife at the second one. That left the third one for Clarity, but as soon as she ran to get in front of him, he put his hands in the air in a surrendering manner.

"What? Why aren't you fighting?" She asked angrily. Though, in all honesty, she really shouldn't be complaining.

The man took off his marine hat and scratched his head as if he had fleas. His hair was a deep brown, but was very messy and unkempt, sticking out at odd angles. She thought it weird that such an untidy character would be a marine, and found it stranger when he stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed after messily placing his hat backwards on his head.

"It's way too much effort." He shrugged and watched as his two comrades got beaten swiftly by Axel and Oreo. All it took was a few punches and slashes. "Plus, Pepper's nice. I don't really like seeing her as a maid." With a lazy smile, he waved at said girl, who looked about as blank as unused paper. There was a flicker of something that flashed briefly, but Clarity couldn't quite catch it.

Axel crossed his arms, swiftly putting his knife away now that no one was fighting anymore. "So, you're helping us?" His eyes narrowed as if he didn't trust him.

"You're pirates, right?" He asked. Once he received three nods, he looked a little conflicted, and shot his head to the side with closed eyes and a frown. "Then, I'm helping Pepper, not you guys. My ambitions take me way farther than this stinkin' island, and helping out a bunch of pirates would do that no good."

"Howcome the Marines want the girlie?" Axel asked then, not that surprised by his answer.

The marine whistled, "Well, she's the best cook that king's got, and he's a gluttonous fat-ass. There's a big reward out for bringing her back."

"A reward, you say?" Axel's eyes sparkled mischievously as he gazed at Pepper in a new light. Now she glowed with money-making prosperity and his brain finally thought of a nice way she would actually be helpful to their crew. "I have a great idea!" He clasped his hands together in glee.

* * *

><p>"This isn't going to work." The lazy marine lay beside Axel and Oreo as they waited in bushes. He had introduced himself as Buddy and hadn't left the group despite the fact that he said he wasn't going to help them.<p>

"If you're going to stay, you could be a bit more optimistic." Oreo sighed, sneaking a glance towards the unkempt man.

"And what are you even doing here?" Axel whisper-yelled, his face contorted into an angry snarl. "Why don't you go back to your marines?"

Buddy rested his chin on his palm as he gave them a bored look. "I can't go back to base now; otherwise it'll look like I haven't done anything."

"But you haven't done anything but annoy a bunch of pirates." Axel hissed.

"Yeah, and no one needs to know about that."

"You know, for someone who looked like he didn't like pirates, you're awfully willing to be with them." Oreo commented, a little interested in the guy. Maybe they might've found another crew member to join them.

"It's not that I don't like pirates... I'd even go so far as to say I have some sort of admiration for them, but my ambitions lie under the Marine's flag." Buddy finally replied after a slight pause. "Plus, this seems a lot more interesting than simply running around like a headless chicken."

"You're really weird." Axel stated, turning back to the scene they were meant to be watching.

Clarity had taken Pepper back to the King's mansion as per their plan to get both the reward and Pepper. She seemed like the least suspicious, but now that they watched her nervously talk to the guard with exaggerated hand movements towards a silent Pepper, they saw she was god-awful at acting and had the worst poker face in the world.

"They aren't going to let them in." Buddy commented with a lazy sigh.

"Says the oh-so-diligent Marine." Axel scoffed, "shush now, have faith."

It took a few minutes, but Clarity was finally allowed inside the gates and the three men watched as she and Pepper disappeared as the large gates closed behind them.

"How long do we wait?" Oreo asked, a little concerned now that his sister wasn't being watched.

"She needs to get the reward first, but I can guess it'll be right away if the king is that anxious to have the girlie back. I'd guess about ten minutes."

* * *

><p><span>Inside the King's Mansion<span>

Clarity really didn't like the way this was turning out. She thought she would be able to manage a mission as simple as this, but the more she thought to act inconspicuous, the more she thought she wasn't at all. It felt like everyone could see right through her, like she had some sort of aura that emitted off from around her that literally screamed, "well, hey, I'm here to do something bad!"

At least she finally got through the gates. That was all that really mattered to her anyway.

When she reached inside the mansion and walked into the large hall, there was a man in a suit ready to escort them to the king's quarters. The walk down the long hallway seemed to take forever, and time felt like it slowed with each step they took. She eventually calmed herself by matching her steps with Pepper's. It served as a reminder that she wasn't exactly as alone as she could be.

The hallway eventually opened up into a large room, where the roof went up so high that you would probably require two large ladders the get to the top window just below the ceiling. There was a long, chocolaty-brown rug that ran from the entrance to where a large man sat on a throne, while the little girl they encountered earlier stood beside him. As they walked closer, Clarity noticed the little ten year old looked extremely pissed, and there was also a mark on the side of her face that looked like it was starting to bruise.

Both their eyes widened when they met, but the girl looked away and Clarity felt instant relief. The little girl wouldn't give away her secret, probably because of how badly she wanted Pepper out of her life. She snuck a glance at Pepper, wondering just what the hell she did to get her so hated by a mere ten year old stuck-up brat.

They stopped directly in front of the king, and she was forced to bow. The king himself was a large man, with a big pot-belly that bloated out, stretching his silken shirt to the limit as the buttons looked like they were about to pop out. His grin was sloppy and he clapped his hands with sausage fingers together in applause. With a wicked grin, he motioned to a maid at the far end of the room, and she quickly scurried on over to hand a large bag to Clarity, who had trouble lifting it.

With a flick of his pudgy wrists, the maid scurried back to her position and he waved Clarity off with a dissatisfied grunt, as if she was already a burden in his life.

"You can leave now." He spoke coldly, before turning bright eyes towards his favourite cook.

Clarity turned to leave and started to drag the bag with her, but suddenly a voice came from above.

"Emergency! There's been a break in!" The voice boomed and Clarity suspected it would be from some snail-speaker.

She grinned wickedly and turned to drag Pepper with her, and perhaps hand the bag over to her, but when she turned, the maid was nowhere to be found. In the next instant, Axel and Oreo burst into the room excitedly, and she could tell they were both excited and exhilarated from this adrenaline rush of stealing from a king. She was surprised to see Buddy casually strolling inside behind him, but he looked a little distracted.

At his entrance, the king pointed at him and shouted, "What are you doing, stupid marine!? Stop them!"

Without any hesitation at all, Axel turned and socked him right across the head. Buddy gave a surprised grunt, but before he could do anything, he was thrust out of the room by Axel.

"Did you see girlie?" He asked once they were out. They were once again relaxed with each other and there was no sense of attack from either man.

"She headed to her quarters." He replied, placing his hands in his pockets. He turned and lazily started trudging his way across the hall. "I'll get her back to you guys," He called back, putting a hand up in a farewell wave. "We'll meet you by the harbour."

And Axel could only watch him disappear before both Clarity and Oreo dashed out into the hallway. They both took a hold of his arms and they made a mad sprint towards the exit, their reward bag in tow.


	19. The Temporary Cook

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**The Temporary Cook**

The three of them made it to the harbour after fending off some of the King Yukka's men that had chased them down after they fled. Axel even had to go so far as to set a couple of nasty looking, large dogs on them that he conjured from one of his scrolls. The two dogs each had two snarling heads, with pure white teeth and fangs so long that they immediately stopped the king's men. With his artistic skills, the dogs looked fearsome and life-threatening. With gulps and wide, fearful eyes, the men discontinued their chase and ran back to the safety of the castle.

The dogs themselves probably would've been taken out with a little slap to the nose, since they were much larger than Axel's usual summons, therefore taking more energy and making them weaker, and he couldn't help but feel smug that they had been fooled into thinking the dogs could actually do damage.

As he closed the scroll, he turned towards his two companions to receive his well-deserved praise, but both Oreo and Clarity had already started towards the ship. He groaned and slumped his shoulders then, and started following at a dejected pace. He felt like there should be a little cloud spewing rain over his head just to fit his mood.

"What a drama queen." Clarity huffed, looking over her shoulder briefly to see how depressed Axel seemed at not being given attention he thought he deserved.

She and Oreo reached the harbour first, and climbed aboard the ship with the ropes that piled over the side. Oreo had to carry their reward bag since Clarity was not strong enough herself, and he deposited it inside the room with the wheel before going back to the front of the ship to wait with his sister. Axel eventually made it to the top of the ship, but he sat with his feet over the side, watching the little waves lightly hit the side as he mumbled about how under-appreciated he was.

An hour passed, and neither Pepper nor Buddy had come to the harbour. Another passed and there was still no sign of them. Axel had laid down for a nap in the middle of the deck and was sleeping soundly, while Clarity had grown extremely bored and gone below deck to the training room Axel had set up. Oreo stayed sitting at the front of the ship, watching and waiting for the appearance of his newest crew member.

He wondered about her as he waited. He thought back to what she looked like, her blank expression, and he felt like she wasn't as she seemed. Perhaps she would open up to them eventually, but for now, it could be a while before they learned anything real about her.

Three hours had passed since they had returned to their ship, and Buddy finally appeared at the harbour, his hands lazily in his pockets and with Pepper in tow. Oreo felt surprise when he saw that she had this humungous bag strapped to her back. It was threatening to burst open from how full it was, but she appeared to have no trouble carrying it.

_I thought she only needed one thing from her quarters... so why the huge bag? _Oreo thought to himself as he got up and climbed off the ship. He greeted the two before as they stood looking around.

"What took you so long?" Oreo asked, staring at Buddy. His marine uniform was dusty and his shirt wasn't tucked in, so he looked like he'd been in a fight. There was a purple bruise across his forehead as well. "Did you fight?"

Buddy shook his head and pointed to his bruise, "That was from your friend, but I had to mess myself up a bit to make it more believable. This little thing won't be enough to get me out of trouble."

The bruise looked to be more than a 'little thing', but Oreo nodded nonetheless. "Trying to make it look like you weren't helping a bunch of pirates?"

Buddy gritted his teeth and spun around, shoving his hands back in his pockets to hide his clenched fists. "Tch. I didn't help pirates. I helped a friend."

Pepper shifted slightly, though whether it was from awkwardness or something else, Oreo didn't know.

"Anyway. You take care of her, 'kay?"

Without another look from him, he walked away, not even raising a hand to wave bye. Oreo watched him leave cautiously. He was slightly confused, but shook his head to clear it before he led Pepper to their ship. He wondered about the odd marine, but figured that maybe there wouldn't be much to worry about.

When he was about to help the girl get her abnormally large bag up the ship, she shrugged him off and gave him a look that said, 'it's not your place to help.' Frowning, he stepped back and watched her climb to the top with slight difficulty. She was still in her maid uniform, so the top of her head was still covered with white fabric and he had no idea what she really looked like. She sat, huffing slightly, on the deck as she finally set the bag on the floor. The fabric at her shoulders was dented in, and slightly wet, and Oreo cringed as he thought that the skin underneath would probably be damaged merely from the weight and the rubbing of the straps. He didn't want to think about why it was slightly wet. He couldn't actually.

One of the circular doors opened up and Clarity's head popped out. Her forehead glistened and her dark hair stuck to it. "What was that loud thump?" She asked as she hefted herself up on the deck. After a few seconds, she realized the answer to her question and ran to the bag. "Woah, what's in here?" She opened it up, and all kinds of food spilled out from the top. A lot of the raw meat was stuffed into other bags and wrapped up in plastic, but most of the contents were fruits, veggies, spices and pre-made sauces.

"Is that why you took so long?" Oreo asked, inspecting the bag. This food would last them at least five weeks, six maybe if they rationed properly. He was glad. The next island would take a while to get to.

Pepper nodded, and got up. "Where is the kitchen?" She asked as she gripped one of the straps. He noticed then that she had discarded the gloves she had previously worn before their whole 'get reward money' plan and her hands had scars that criss-crossed all across them. They were faded, probably made a long time ago and he wondered if they were from a time before she even became a maid.

Clarity had still been digging through the contents of the bag, wondering what other goodies could be hidden in the seemingly endless depths, and her hands touched something that felt a little too strange to be food. Her fingers clasped around it and she pulled it out. After examining this for a few seconds, she screamed and flung this object in the air in surprise.

Everything happened fast after that. The object flew through the air, and looked like it would go overboard and land on the blue waves below, but Pepper was extremely fast and flung herself over the banister to catch whatever this object was. Her feet clung around the banister, but they bent at an awkward angle and she made a straggled noise as if she was in pain. Oreo rushed quickly to pull her back on the ship, and as he grabbed one of her hands, he finally saw the object in her other.

It was a doll, probably as long as his torso, and completely sown with old fabric. It was patchy too, as if different kinds and colours of fabric were stitched over in uneven patterns. White thread connected these different patches so it looked like it had stitches. He was mostly yellow and green, but there was some red and orange patches but they were small compared. His eyes were blue buttons sewed on hurriedly so they looked like they would fall off, and his hair was made up of purple rope. Well, Oreo assumed it was a he because the hair was cut short.

Pepper sat down quickly and held on to her foot, and it looked like she twisted it because it was starting to swell by her ankle, but the doll remained tightly in her grasp.

Clarity was with them in a moment, and looked with wide eyes at the doll. She shuddered, remembering this cold feeling she got from it. She didn't know why though, it looked completely harmless now. Just, when she held it out of the bag, her fingers where she touched it grew cold, as if ice was starting to form in her veins. She couldn't explain this feeling, but it scared her.

"Is that what you use for black magic?" Clarity shot a look at the doll and pointed to it accusingly.

Pepper lifted her head, something like malice in her expression before she quickly cleared it with obvious practice. Before she could reply, Oreo bonked his sister over the head hard.

"I told you to stop that!" He was angry now, and as she looked at him, Clarity couldn't find it in herself to explain how cold she felt. Perhaps it was nothing. She was still uneasy however. "There's no such thing as magic," Oreo continued, then indicated the bag. "Help me carry the bag to the kitchen."

He walked over to Axel, who somehow hadn't woken up during all the commotion, and asked him to get something cold for Pepper's ankle. Axel looked bewildered at first, but when he was tired, he didn't really register much so he just got up and went down below the deck to look for something cold. He wasn't exactly sure why, but Oreo asked, so he might as well do it.

As Clarity helped Oreo carry the large bag of food, she thought that Pepper should probably just use her doll for something cold.

* * *

><p>The sky was darkening as the four of them sat in the kitchen area. The food from the bag had been packed, but the fridge was too small to hold all of the meat and the cupboards didn't provide enough space for everything else, so they put the things least likely to go off back into the bag. They sat around the small table that took up the rest of the room in a still silence.<p>

Clarity was drumming her fingers impatiently, not quite knowing how to handle this silence. She looked at Pepper, who had her leg elevated with a packet of cold water draped over her swollen ankle. She had removed the fabric around her hair to reveal pure white hair stuck stiffly into a tight bun at the back of her head. She hadn't even glanced at Clarity since she had almost thrown that doll overboard, and she was fine with that.

With a huff, she took to looking at the two boys. They were going to set sail in a few minutes, but the two were fretting, as they usually did, about the best way to start. There was finger pointing, and furrowed brows and raised voices before they finally seemed to agree on something. They then left to start on their course.

When Clarity was left alone with Pepper, she felt uneasy. It wasn't the girl herself, who sat quietly and stiffly, but rather the memory of how cold her weird doll had been. She hadn't seen it since they carried the bag to the kitchen, but that thought didn't stop the nervous churning of her stomach nor the quickening of her heartbeat.

As she felt the ship start to move backwards, Pepper calmly removed the cold packet off of her ankle and hobbled her way over to one of the counters. Clarity simply watched her, feeling no inclination to help for fear of her black magic. She didn't feel like she owed her anything anyway.

Pepper had managed to get a few ingredients from the cupboard and used a thick knife to dice them up finely. She switched on the gas stove, and started to quick fry some vegetables. After that, she placed them in a separate bowl and struggled to the fridge to take out a big cut of meat, which Clarity presumed was beef, but she didn't really know enough about meat to tell. It all looked the same to her. Pink and raw and squishy.

She began to cut the meat in thick pieces, and by that time, Axel and Oreo came back in. It had been a few long minutes, and the ship beneath them rocked against the waves, so she could tell they were nearing the open sea.

At the sight of seeing Pepper cooking, Axel rubbed his belly in anticipation before going towards a seat, but Oreo stopped to ask if she was okay to actually cook. She didn't reply and just kept doing her job.

Axel sneered then, "We don't want your cooking anyway, man. You gave us food poisoning last time!"

"That was just once." Oreo quickly replied, feeling a little embarrassed from his fail.

"Once is enough." Clarity mumbled, placing her chin on her palm as she rested her head.

"Hey. I didn't see you even try."

Clarity looked appalled, then shook her head. "I'm worse than you are. It runs in the family. Remember every time dad tried to cook?"

"I don't ever want to." Oreo shuddered, a grimace clear on his face.

The conversation went silent after that, only the sizzling sound of meat being cook on a pan echoed throughout the room. It took around twenty minutes for Pepper to start plating and within three, she presented them each with a dish.

The meat piled in the centre of the plate, all cooked to perfection, with a delightful dark red sauce to accompany it. The veggies were the side dish, but the spices used on them lifted the tension in the air and filled the room with a cosy aroma. The dish itself was simple, but very tasty.

Pepper stood next to the table as the others started to tuck in.

Axel's mouth filled with food shot at the young cook. "Hey, what are you doing just standing there? Eat."

She looked confused, and glanced over to her plate that lay on the counter hesitantly. She was used to cooking, serving, waiting, cleaning, and only then eating. She didn't know how to eat with the ones she cooked for.

"You're a pirate now, not some silly maid." Axel continued, using his fork to point at her. "Come on. Feel the freedom!"

Freedom? She didn't know what that meant.

Pepper seemed dismayed as she glanced between those she served and her own food. She jumped when Axel pounded his fist on the table in impatience, and scurried to her plate before composing herself to join the other three during the meal. This was an order, she supposed, and she awkwardly started to eat along with them.

Soon, Oreo, Axel and Clarity had started a lively conversation about the next island and what it was supposed to be.

"Well, from what I've heard, it's quite peaceful. There's been no news of attack from pirates, so I guess we can assume there's some sort of navy base situated there, or maybe something bigger, that keeps all the pirates away."  
>"Maybe they think it's just a waste of time since they want to head to the Grand Line." Axel argued.<p>

No one noticed that Pepper had stopped eating at his words and she stared, unblinking, at her plate still with food.

"Well, it is if you come from further east, since then it's only a week's journey and they would still have supplies. We'd need to stop there. It's going to be a while before we reach it, and I would ideally like one more member to give us a better chance with Reverse Mountain." Oreo mused, seeming to be in thought. It was then that he noticed Pepper looking so out of it. "Oh, I forgot to ask if you would be okay with that. The Grand Line is pretty dangerous, I hear."

Pepper stood up abruptly. Her knife and fork clattered on her plate from her swift movement, and it drew the others into a heavy silence as they watched her carefully.

Her eyes were so wide as she looked at Oreo, and they were like little black holes absorbing an explosion. What was once just emptiness turned into this flurry of emotion that her face couldn't control. There was everything she ever needed to show in that gaze.

Without allowing another second of anyone looking at her exposed face, she bowed. She had never been allowed to expose herself, for that meant punishment, so it was nerve-wrecking to let these strangers see her like this. But she had to... she had to ask.

"I know that I am nothing but a burden and that I do not really have a right to ask of such a thing, but... I'll leave and not be such a dead weight if we get to an island called Jemry."

Her voice was high and desperate, which left everyone in a state of shock.

"Jemry?" Oreo asked, "In the Grand Line?"

She nodded and swiftly knelt on the ground, placing her forehead on the ground to both beg and hide at the same time. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt anything that she couldn't control or push back. It was a bit overwhelming.

"Until then," Pepper continued, "I'll cook and clean and do anything that you ask of me. I know most of you don't really want me here, so you can just dump me at Jemry and never deal with me again."

"Sounds pretty good," Clarity stated, which caused Oreo to shoot her a warning look. She grew a little defensive, and Oreo turned back to the cook on the floor.

"What's so important about Jemry Island?" He asked.

She still faced the ground, a little scared to show her face. She spoke slowly and softly. "It's the place where my only, known family member lives. I wish to meet him."

Oreo then looked at Axel, who just shrugged, then to Clarity, who was biting her lower lip in worry as she looked in front of her sadly. He finally looked at Pepper, then stated. "We'll get you there then. I guess you'll just be our temporary cook, then."

Pepper finally looked up and Oreo had never in his life seen such a grateful expression. For one who wore such a practised blank expression, a real one looked almost beautiful. Like a shining gem, or the flickering waves that reflected the sunlight on a quiet beach. Oreo could finally grasp what Axel had once said about him; that he shone. Pepper shone now. Probably brighter than he ever had.

He found himself wishing that she had always shown this side of her, but in an instant, she managed to lose her grateful smile and she just nodded at him. At least her eyes were not as blank anymore.

Clarity stood up then, and attempted a yawn. "I'm going to head off to sleep for an early night." She then pointed to Pepper as she stood up and announced. "I command you to come with me."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Whew that went on longer than expected, but hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I also just want to say that I've put an OC's list on my profile to keep track of all the characters and this will be updated every time a new, at least semi-important character gets introduced.


	20. A Marine Captain

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**A Marine Captain **

Clarity led Pepper to the room where she slept. It was a few doors away from Oreo and Axel's shared room, and she opened the old door before ushering the cook inside. Her room was small, with only a bed, a table with some of her old belongings and a dresser with a dirty mirror. It wasn't the best living conditions, she supposed, but she was only ever in here when she needed to sleep anyway, and some nights - when she was lonely - she would go to Oreo and Axel's room to sleep.

Clarity turned to Pepper, who stood at attention as if waiting for an order. This annoyed her greatly.

"How long have you been a servant girl?" She asked impatiently.

Pepper looked thoughtful. "Perhaps since I was nine."

"And how old are you now?"

"Sixteen." She replied, then paused. "I think."

_So she's only a little younger than me..._ Clarity mused.

"And you say your family is dead, except for someone at... Jemry was it?" Clarity asked, giving her a steady gaze with slightly widened eyes.

"My uncle is the only known family that is alive. If anyone else is still alive, I wouldn't know." Pepper's voice was steady, but she frowned deeply. She was wondering why she had to answer all the questions.

Clarity nodded in understanding and her expression softened as she made her way to sit on the bed. She looked to be in thought for a minute or two, then she finally whispered. "You must've been lonely..."

She suddenly got to her feet, and whirled past Pepper to her dresser. She opened one of the drawers and got out some clothes before turning to hand the shirt and shorts to the cook.

"Here, you can wear my clothes until we get to the next island. You probably don't want to wear that maid outfit anymore."

Pepper was confused about this change in the girl who had been mostly hostile to her. She wasn't sure what to do about it, and she was still a little ticked that she had almost thrown her precious doll overboard. Nonetheless, she took the clothes and said a soft thank you.

Clarity took it upon herself to help Pepper change and rushed her through it due to impatience. Clarity wanted to ask her something, but thought it would be weird while she was half-naked.

Once she was dressed comfortably, Clarity said. "I'm a pretty great sister, you can ask Oreo. If you ever want another family member alive, I'm here and I could be your older sister."

Pepper was dumbstruck. What was going on in Clarity's mind to have such a drastic change in attitude? This made no sense. And how could they be sisters? They weren't blood-related.

Clarity blew out the candle on the dresser and climbed into her bed and dragged Pepper with her. The cook was too surprised to protest so she was tucked in beside the strange girl.

"Not having any family must be lonely." Clarity whispered in the dark. "I understand what it's like to be lonely."

Pepper didn't give a reply, so Clarity assumed that she was right about her just being lonely. Perhaps the cook was just too afraid to admit it.

As Clarity's breathing slowed, Pepper found herself with one thought.

_I have, and never will be, lonely in my life. _

* * *

><p><span>At the Marine Base (Previous Island – Rover Island)<span>

Buddy had a hard time dealing with the other marines who accused him of slacking off during the pirate raid. He was tired, and didn't want to deal with that nonsense any longer, so after filing a report to the head of the base; he made his way to his quarters and immediately slumped down on the bed.

He sighed and thought to himself, _what a long day. _

It was around ten minutes later that the intercom went off, and the captain of the base announced that they had visitors.

"All officers are to gather in the main hall. I repeat. All officers are to gather in the main hall. Captain Teddy has arrived."

Captain Teddy?

He had forgotten that a travelling Marine Captain was coming to gather more marines for his ship. Buddy stood up abruptly, now focused. He needed to get on this travelling ship.

Without a second thought, he almost ran out of his quarters, completely forgetting about his dishevelled appearance.

It took a few long minutes to reach the main hall and as he got there, he could already see more than half of all the marines situated here were already waiting.

At the front, there was a man who was almost six feet tall, who wore a zipped up white vest with the marine's symbol for justice on its back. His body was well built, and from what he could see from his face, he had darkly tanned skin. His hair was a shock of bright blonde and it reached down to his neck. It was unkempt, much like his own, and Buddy found himself already approving. This captain probably wasn't one of those strict ones who demanded you shave your hair short, or that you tuck in your shirt. He personally wasn't concerned about what he looked like.

As Buddy pushed through the crowd to get more to the front, he had to stop for a couple of seconds because he saw the captain was wearing slippers on his feet. It made him look a little funny, but their eyes met at that moment and he had to control the urge to burst out laughing. It was way more difficult than he thought, but luckily the captain's eyes moved on and he allowed himself a goofy grin.

Another strange thing was that there was a green and white parrot that sat upon a wrap of bandages on his right shoulder, and the parrot wore a little marine coat. It had a steel beak as well.

It took a couple more minutes for the room to fill up with all the marines stationed here and Captain Teddy finally spoke up.

"I'm in need of a few marines fuelled by justice!" He announced, watching everyone carefully. "We need to punish all the evil-doers in this world, and if you're ready for such a daunting task, join me."

Buddy wasn't exactly focused on punishing people, but he needed to get out there and make a name for himself, so he immediately joined the other marines who had stepped forward. Buddy quickly looked left and right and counted seventeen marines all looking ready to go. He didn't know them very well, but then again, he had never really made friends with anyone here.

Captain Teddy looked extremely concentrated, so much so that his face was going a little red. He was looking at each marine, and when he got to the end of the line, he finally relaxed. "Ah, fifty two justice-fuelled soldiers. Do you think there's enough space for them on the ship, Kyte?" He asked, turning to the second in command on his ship that stood beside him.

Kyte was slim, and wore a hat with the marine symbol as well as the typical marine uniform. He quickly saluted and corrected his captain. "There are only seventeen of them, sir."

"Seventeen?!" He looked honestly surprised. "I swear I counted fifty two."

"I apologize for the bluntness, sir, but your counting skills have always been terrible." Kyte replied, lowering his hand and placing it behind his back with the other.

"Drats." Teddy clicked his fingers in frustration. "Oh well. I'll get it next time." He turned and started to head out of the main hall.

Kyte looked like he disagreed, but didn't say anything as he followed obediently.

Buddy fell to the back of the group, and followed at his own leisurely pace, listening to what the others had to say about Captain Teddy.

"His name is Theodore Paredes, but I hear the nickname he earned himself was 'Exploding Teddy', so people just call him Captain Teddy." He heard the guy in front of him whisper.

Exploding Teddy? Buddy thought that this was going to be pretty damn interesting.

* * *

><p><span>Back on the pirate's ship – The next morning<span>

Clarity mumbled as the sun from the porthole hit her eyes. She blinked them open and rolled to the side to avoid it. She remembered Pepper had been in the bed as well, but it was currently empty, so she sat up abruptly, wondering what happened.

When she saw Pepper standing on alert by the door, back to wearing her servant uniform, something inside of her snapped. She leaped out of the bed and grabbed Pepper by the shoulders to shake her.

"What are you doing wearing that?!" She yelled, "You're a pirate now."

In her fit, she roughly removed the uniform and rushed to open the porthole. She threw the uniform out in a huff and watched it land on the dark blue water below. She continued to watch until the waves carried that horrible cloth underneath into its dark depths.

Clarity then marched to her dresser and got out a random shirt and shorts and threw them at a still Pepper, commanding her to get changed as she paced to calm herself down. She was angry that after everything they spoke about last night, the cook refused to accept her generosity.

Once Pepper had put on the clothes, Clarity turned on her. "Didn't you hear me last night?" she demanded, "I'm your sister now and you won't ever be lonely again, so there's no need for those stupid clothes!"

Seeing Pepper's pure white hair still in that tight bun reminded her of the of the servant outfit, so she marched over to her and took it out. She was surprised to find that her hair reached all the way to her hips. She touched the hair, and her eyes went wide when she felt how soft it was. Her hair had never been this soft. As Clarity inspected it, she realized that its path was to the right, therefore making her hair fall over the left side of her face, half covering her large, dark eyes.

She went to the dirty mirror and found two long, black clips. She turned to Pepper and moved the hair out of her eyes and pushed the clips upwards.

"There." Clarity stated, looking happy at her adjustments. Pepper just looked like she couldn't care less. "It's in a cross, just like the pirate flag, eh?" She paused and continued to fiddle with Pepper's hair. "You're kind of pretty for a little girl." Well, technically she wasn't, but she looked younger than she was. "Who would've thought your hair would be so soft?" Clarity gently grabbed a chunk of it. "Perhaps it's the length that makes you seem childish."

At that thought, she dragged the cook outside and led her to the room where she knew Axel and Oreo would be; the map room.

As she burst through the door, the two men barely even registered her entrance since they were used to her doing that. Clarity moved to Axel, Pepper in tow, and asked for one of his knives.

He shrugged and quickly removed one from its holder on his hip, then handed it to her. She took it quickly. It had a thick handle, but the blade itself was sharp.

In one swift movement, she had grabbed all Pepper's hair at the back and chopped it off near the neck. The chop was slightly messy, so Pepper's hair unevenly went to just below halfway on her neck. She looked a little shocked that Clarity had just used a knife to do this and could've easily cut her.

Clarity handed the knife back to Axel, who was looking at all the white hair on the floor in disdain. The little girlie better damn well clean this mess up.

Clarity seemed happy with her work though, and pulled Pepper to stand between her and Axel and Oreo, who had yet to even acknowledge them since he was so concentrated on his maps.

"Tadaa!" She announced, presenting Pepper, "We now have our temporary cook looking the part!"

"Have you been messing with her all morning?" Axel asked, not looking all that impressed.

In the silence that followed, everyone heard his stomach growling.

Pepper jumped from the sound and immediately apologized. "It won't happen again." She bowed quickly and turned to leave the room.

Clarity watched her leave with a frown, then turned to Axel. ""You're ruining my chances to be a good sister." She accused.

"You're not a good sister." Oreo said, not even looking up. So he had been paying some attention to what was going on.

Clarity was about to protest, but Axel interrupted her. "But you were a bitch to her yesterday, so what's with the sudden change?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you." She sniffed, crossing her arms.

"You're so whiney; I don't even want to hear what you have to say." Axel sneered, riling her up again. It was his daily routine by now, and Clarity responded in the same way every time.

"Well, you're just an asshole who's dumber than a brick."

Axel rested his elbow on the table and placed his chin on his palm, looking at her with a cocky grin. "Wow, where'd you get that insult? It's worse than what you usually throw out."

Oreo's feather he was writing with broke as he got more annoyed with this petty fight about nothing. At the snapping sound, he got up, and without a word, proceeded to push his two crewmates until they were out of the room. After the final shove, he slammed the door, but he could still hear them arguing through the door.

He walked to get another feather and sat back down. He recovered his book of islands from the mess of papers and maps and turned to a brand new page.

With a few flicks of his wrist, he had written the heading "Jemry Island – Grand Line" at the top and he simply stared at it in thought.

He wanted to find out what he could about the island that Pepper wanted to be dropped off at, but everything he had so far didn't tell much of the Grand Line. It was going to be a difficult journey ahead of them just to find this island. He could tell.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

Well, not much happened, but we get a lot of information here, both obvious and hidden. I wanted to thank Condor-K for sending in Captain Teddy cause he's awesome and I'm hoping we'll see more of him soon. Next chapter will have a bit more action and hints, but there's still two more chapters until they arrive at the next island (I think, unless I do a really long one for 21). I'm hoping it's not going too slowly, but I feel Pepper needs to be slowly unraveled and she won't even be completely exposed until Arc nine or ten depending, and we're only in two haha. Anyways, the pace should hopefully pick up a bit more once we reach the Grand Line and I'm looking forward to that. Hope you enjoyed this, and the next chapter should come pretty soon.


	21. A Monster Who Asks For Five Fish

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**A Monster Who Asks For Five Fish**

_A few days later..._

Axel sat cross-legged on the deck, a bunch of scrolls scattered messily in front of him. Clarity and Pepper stood in front of him, wondering why they had been called, while Oreo leaned on the wall of the room with the ship's wheel to observe.

Axel cleared his throat and quickly pumped his chest with a fist before he announced, "We are all gathered here today to bear witness to what will obviously be a hideous display of physical exertion since these two are females." His voice was low, but Clarity bristled at his insult. She was about to spit at him, but she was stopped as he continued. "Now, we all know Clarity is about as useless as a sack of flour when it comes to being a strong fighter, but our dear temporary cook has yet to attend one of my world-renowned training lessons."

Oreo scoffed at this point. He couldn't believe how infinitely large his friend's head was.

Pepper stood up straighter. In the past few days, she had slowly peeped her head out of her shell. After Axel had consistently made many terrible attempts to rile her up - even going so far as to casually feel her up after dinner and announce to the rest of the crew that she was as flat as the horizon line – she started to get a little less accepting towards how she was treated. Perhaps it was the constant reminders from everyone that she wasn't a servant anymore, that she had freedom now, that made her think that 'well, hey, I don't need to take this from anyone now.'

It was a dangerous game Axel was playing, to let her realize this, for she could turn against them at any moment. Granted, they were on a ship with nowhere for her to run off to, but she was the cook. She could do anything to the food they ate. And she was also temporary. Her realization could be the end of their crew, but this was a game, and Axel had never fancied losing.

"I don't need training lessons." Pepper said, looking at him in the eyes.

Axel waved a hand carelessly. "Nonsense. Trust, you'll be thanking me for this."

And with a flurry, he waved a hand over each of the scrolls, quickly releasing a large wolf, a samurai with a flaming sword, a bee the size of his head with a stinger that glinted dangerously off the sunlight and a small gnome-like creature who waved an even smaller axe around crazily. Without a word, they all targeted Pepper.

It was at the moment the wolf came a few centimetres from her head that something finally happened. Axel had been watching carefully, but even he couldn't comprehend how the wolf suddenly did not exist anymore. Pepper stood in exactly the same position, so she was obviously not the one that hit the wolf. One second, its teeth gleamed near her neck, and the next, it was flung away and evaporated almost instantly.

The samurai had the same fate. As he lifted his flaming sword, something knocked him backwards, and he too vanished. Pepper only watched with large, doe eyes. She still did not move, except perhaps to shuffle her feet uncomfortably. Within a few, too quick moments, the bee had been whacked out of the air, but it vanished before it even hit the deck. Axel had no idea what was going on. But his ink creations were vanishing one by one without a plausible explanation. He could only put faith in the small gnome, for he would be the strongest. The smaller in size they were, the better his power seemed to work.

The gnome hardly went up to Pepper's knee, and she could have easily kicked it away. He would've liked to see her do that, because he knew it would injure her. Her skinny legs would hardly do anything to the gnome woven so delicately with the powers of a devil fruit that it would have harmed her, and it possibly may have even fractured the many, small bones in her foot.

But she still did not move. The gnome, however, got pushed back whenever it came to close to her, as if some invisible wall kept bouncing it away. It tumbled along the deck with each hit, and Axel grew pretty damn impressed with himself since the little guy could withstand so many hits. This training did not only benefit the others, it helped him strengthen his ability as well.

He whistled as the gnome took another hit by apparently nothing, and his eyes gazed at Pepper, trying to read her body language because he had a strong suspicion that she had eaten a devil fruit like him. Unfortunately, if she was using such a temptation, he couldn't tell. The only thing that moved were her large, dark eyes that followed the gnome until it finally disappeared.

Clarity found that she was shaking. She had no idea what the hell was going on, but it was undeniably scary. She got cold, and she shivered, and the only thing she could do was stare at Pepper as if she was something that didn't belong in this world. An alien, perhaps, or maybe one of those mythical creatures that were so unbelievable that she could hardly believe they lived in books. Those had another name, and she had not thought of this word in a long time. This fear was slightly familiar though, and it grabbed at her arms and whispered one word into her ear that she couldn't help but agree with.

_Monster._

_Monster._

_Monster. _

Pepper repeated herself. "I don't need training lessons." A few seconds of silence passed before she quickly bowed. Whether it was an old habit that didn't want to go away, or whether her face was open enough for the rest of the crew to read, Axel couldn't tell. "I will go prepare lunch." She then scurried to one of the circular holes in the deck and went down to head towards the kitchen, all the while hiding her face.

As Axel seemed to contemplate something, he felt a twack on the back of his head and looked up to see Oreo. He had a strange expression, almost distant, but his mouth was curved up in a warm smile.

"And you said she wasn't interesting." He teased.

Clarity still felt cold as images of monsters blasted through her mind. After hearing what her brother had said, she could only conclude that the sea air did him no good; he was turning into a madman.

* * *

><p><em>Three weeks later<em>

It was morning, and the crew had just finished eating a beautiful breakfast. Oreo had insisted on cleaning up, and as Pepper protested and tried to get him out of the kitchen, he opened one of the drawers to find it completely empty. The other two had left the kitchen at this point, arguing about another trivial thing.

Oreo turned to Pepper who, for the first time since boarding the ship, looked guilty. He swiftly checked the other drawers and found at least three quarters of them completely empty. In despair, he rubbed at his forehead and gave a long, hard look at Pepper. She had moved herself out of the way when Oreo had started the search, carefully placing herself within easy reach in case he wanted to punish her.

"Have... have we really been eating _that _much?" Oreo sighed, not quite believing it. The dishes Pepper made were so simple that he didn't even think that they may have taken a lot of ingredients. After the first day, he had left her to do her job and only ever came into the kitchen during meal times, so he never would have noticed their large food storage rapidly decreasing.

Pepper looked at the ground, and Oreo couldn't help but think she looked a lot younger in that moment than she ever had. It was weird that her guilty expression seemed to turn back the clock of time enough to make her seem like a mere child.

"It is difficult to cook well with so few ingredients." She finally said after a pregnant pause.

Oreo clenched his fists and was about to chide her on being so careless when something suddenly snapped into place. Since his realization was such a shock, he hardly registered the icy coldness that started to run along the veins of his clenched fist. He softened slightly and murmured. "You don't know how to ration... You've been cooking for royalty for years. Their supply of food must seem endless." He looked at her, and she had finally lifted her head. Her eyes were wide with worry though. "Don't look so worried." He almost laughed at his own carelessness. He should've realized her problem sooner.

The worry vanished from her eyes as he felt warmth seep back into his hand. He flexed his fingers in and out, oddly confused as to why it felt so weird.

Pepper quickly distracted him with a few words. "We may have to start fishing for food soon."

Oreo nodded. "I'll ask Clarity if she's willing. If I recall, she was rather good at fishing."

He then turned to leave the room and he went through the door. As he started walking down the hallway, he heard Pepper's voice. It was annoyed, and it didn't suit her normal voice.

"What was _that?"_

"What?" Oreo called back through the hall.

There was a quick silence before she shouted back. "I didn't hear anything!"

_Strange..._ Oreo thought to himself as he climbed the stairs that led to the deck.

* * *

><p><em>A few days later<em>

Clarity had her feet swung over the edge of the ship, just under the banister, while a fishing rod she had to quickly make after they ran out of protein to eat was in her hands. She was humming an old tune her mother used to sing while she cleaned, and she began to wonder what her parents were up to. Probably not much on that small island.

She huffed and watched the waves below hit the side of the boat gently; lapping at its wood like it was its life source. So far, her journey had been strange, with strange people and even stranger events. A voice snapped her from her thoughts, and she jumped, knocking the back of her head at the bottom of the banister.  
>"Clarity?" Pepper asked, bending curiously as Clarity rubbed at her head and groaned. Before Clarity could even ask what the hell she wanted, she herself asked a question, not even bothering to double-check if her head was all right. "How many fish are you catching?"<p>

Clarity looked back up at her like she was stupid. "Four. I've got two more to go." She announced, patting the bucket beside her. Pepper glanced curiously into the bucket, surprised that they were so different. One had scales as black as coal, with small horns, while the other was red with large, wing-like fins at its side.

Pepper looked at Clarity again, but she had returned her attention to the water. "Can you catch five?" She asked, her voice clear.

"Huh? Why would you want an extra one? There are only four people."

Pepper looked hesitant to answer, but finally did. "I want to prepare a specific dish, so I need an extra fish."

Clarity frowned at being given more work, but waved a hand to say that she'll catch an extra fish. Pepper then bowed, and turned, a relieved smile on her face.

That night, once dinner was served, Clarity glanced at everyone else's food after she was brought back from the euphoric sensations just the smell of her dish put her through. Everyone had only one full fish.

Just as Pepper started to eat, Clarity asked, "hey, where's the fifth fish I had to catch?"

Pepper nearly choked on her food and Axel swiftly knocked her on the back a few times to help her. Once she recovered from the coughing fit that ensued, she looked a little nervous.

"It's in the sauce." She replied, turning back to her food.

Clarity looked at the sauce drenched over the fish suspiciously, but then she just shrugged it off. The cook probably wasted it somehow but was too ashamed to admit it. Plus, she didn't want to make a fuss with her. Nothing weird had happened since that training session four weeks ago, but she was still wary of her. No amount of reminders that black magic did not exist would ever stop her from being wary of the cook.


	22. Cold Sickness

_**A Pirate's Life For Me**_

**Cold Sickness**

It had been a week since Pepper had started asking for five fish to be caught and Clarity was irritated, to say the least. Each day, she caught five fish, exactly as she had been asked, but when it came to dinner, everyone was served one fish and the fifth was wasted somehow. Clarity gritted her teeth as she waited for her prey to be lured to the bait at the end of her rod. She's had enough of doing more work than was necessary, especially if all that extra effort just went to waste.

So, she got up from her spot after catching only four fish and headed to the kitchen to give the food to Pepper. Once she reached the kitchen below deck, she grunted in greeting and flung the bucket onto the table. Pepper made her way over to the bucket and gazed inside. Clarity wanted nothing more than to slap her when she saw a frown plague her face.

"There's only four fish..." Pepper stated, unsure of why there was fewer than she had asked for.

Clarity crossed her arms to refrain herself from strangling the cook. "Yeah, well, there were hardly any bites. I was lucky to even catch four." She lied easily. There was no problem with fish biting; she just didn't want to catch something that would just be wasted.

Pepper was still frowning as she grabbed the bucket and moved it to her cutting boards so that she could de-scale and de-bone them. It was replaced by a simple blank look, however, once she started to concentrate on the fish. Clarity watched her carefully, but once she finished, Pepper asked if she could go and tell Axel and Oreo that dinner would be ready soon. She could only shrug and go with the request, but as she walked out into the hallway to search for the remaining crew members, she thought that it was pretty strange that she was always ushered out once Pepper started cooking.

It took close to an hour to finish finding Axel, since he was not in one of his usual spots, but was rather at the back of the ship, tucked away into a dark room with paper and scrolls lying everywhere. There were bottles of ink as well, but he sat cross legged with his back towards the door when she walked in and he hardly seemed to even notice her. There was a paper in his hand, but he gripped it with such ferocity that it scrunched up at the sides. He must've sensed her when she was directly behind him though, since he immediately crumpled up the paper. His hand was literally shaking from how hard he held the now scrunched up ball of paper.

"What do you want, girlie?" He asked after a long pause. His eyes were closed when Clarity walked in front of him and his grip was starting to relax slightly.

"It's just dinner... you feeling okay?"

At that moment, Axel shot to his feet with all the over exuberance he could muster at that point, and wrapped his arm around Clarity's shoulder while simultaneously leading her towards the door and away from the crumpled paper he had casually thrown over his shoulder.

"I'm fine!" Axel shouted out, puffing out his chest proudly as he did so. "I'm good! I'm great! Super! Stupendous!" All the while, he was shouting out in glee and leading her through the door, eventually slamming the door closed behind him. "Just fantastic." He whispered through gritted teeth once Clarity had started walking out of ear shot.

She'd been on the same boat with him for probably months now, but his weird moods still made her confused and she had no idea how to deal with him. She'd usually just let Oreo deal with him, 'cause there were some days where he seemed to lose what little sanity that was left in that under-used mind of his, and it was scary. He would drink and drink and drink, then proclaim loudly that Oreo shined or something like that, then he would get... weird. Weirder than he normally was. Whenever he was in his 'drunk period' as Oreo so kindly put it, it was like he wasn't Axel anymore, or at least he wasn't a complete Axel anymore.

There was no sashaying around the deck as the sun dipped behind the ocean, eagerly waiting to greet the moon with half-remembered verses of poems that got mixed up with songs and fast-moving thoughts and quotes. There was no commanding others to do things he was too lazy to do himself. There was no mid-afternoon complains about how the sun burned his skin for whether he was sober or not, he still didn't fancy wearing a lot of clothes. He was almost always barefoot, unless they were shopping for supplies, and his shirt always apparently 'walked off on its own mission' according to Axel.

No, when it was his 'drunk period', there was his voice lifting up through the empty air, only seeming to converse with himself. He would constantly ask if Oreo and Clarity were really real, and no matter how many times Oreo managed to convince him that they weren't figments of his imagination, he would still ask them the next time. There were screams that rang out through the middle of the night, strangled and heart-wrenching and unbearable screams that seemed to be never-ending and so full of pain and sorrow.

Oreo had said that it used to be a lot worse when they first started off together. This period used to come weekly and last for around four or five days, now in the few months Clarity had been with them, this period had only happened twice and had lasted for only two nights. Two, long, sleepless nights.

She snuck a quick glance back towards her crew mate, and instantly knew that a new 'drunk period' was on its way. He had that look in his eyes, like he was thinking about something painful. She didn't know how drinking helped him, for in her eyes it only seemed to make it a lot worse, but he always seemed more happy and determined after this period. When she had asked him about why he drank after the second time, he had given her such a look of distaste before replying that the drinks helped him drown what was inside of him. The more he drank, the further they sank into the darkness. He said he would also be drowning in that darkness like his demons if it had not been for Oreo. After that, Clarity decided never to ask him about it again. His business was his, and it frightened her.

She felt obligated to warn Pepper. As Axel wandered off down the other hallway, she walked back towards the kitchen, preparing herself to tell the other two that Axel might not make it to dinner.

She had just walked through the door and was already blown away by the smells that coated the room. It made her mouth water and her tummy rumble with the roars of hunger. Ever since they rationed to make sure they had enough food until the next island, which was around a week away, no one had lunch, and their breakfasts had to be small, so their dinner was practically the only part of the day that they didn't suffer from the pangs of hunger.

She had seated herself at the table and just opened her mouth to tell them that Axel might not eat tonight, when the man himself toddled through the door and took his seat at the end of the small table. She noticed Oreo's sudden stiffening and she knew he knew that all Axel wanted to do right now was drown his demons. She could see the hard set of his jaw as he fiddled with the splinters sticking out of the table. She had never heard her brother complain once when Axel wanted to drink, but she could see he hated just the thought of it. Before anyone could speak over the sudden build-up of tension in the room, their plates of food were dropped on front of them.

As Clarity started to tuck in, Pepper sat across from her, but she didn't have a plate of food for herself.

"You're not eating?" Oreo asked her, leaning towards her slightly on the table with his forearm.

Axel stayed unusually quiet as he ate. Usually, he would be butting in and shoving profanities her way until she ate. Clarity hoped Pepper wasn't getting back into the whole 'servant' thing again.

But, the younger girl just shook her head. "I feel that if I eat, I'll just throw it up."

"Why didn't you tell us you were feeling sick?" He asked. Geez, first it was the silent before the storm of Axel's 'drunk period', now it was Pepper feeling so sick she couldn't eat. What was going on tonight?

"There's no need to worry." Pepper replied immediately, looking down at her hands entwined in her lap. "I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow."

But she didn't. Nor did she feel any better the next day.

She kept looking weaker and weaker, and she kept moving slower and slower. Clarity kept catching four fish for her to cook, and while she did cook them, albeit with far poorer quality than before, she never ate her share of the food, claiming her stomach was too sore.

Clarity couldn't help but grumble to herself as she walked to her room after dinner. Pepper hadn't eaten again, and another fish was wasted. She might as well have caught three fish and that wouldn't even have made a difference. The cook would probably still waste one.

Clarity quickly changed and got into bed, wanting to sleep off her foul mood. She tossed and turned in her sleep, and when she finally opened her eyes the next morning, she found the other side of the bed vacant. Usually, Pepper slept with her (not that she had another choice really, with Clarity's stubbornness) but the white-haired cook wasn't there, and the sun hadn't even started to shine through the porthole yet, so it was early. She should still be in bed at this time. She usually was.

With a slow rub on her eyes and a huge yawn, Clarity made her way out of the room and dragged her feet all the way to the kitchen. She immediately woke up, however, when she noticed Pepper lying on the floor, so still she looked to be dead.

Upon closer inspection, she was still breathing, but it was so soft, it hardly seemed to move her body. There were little whimpering noises coming from her and her hands clutched at her stomach. Was her strange sickness getting worse?

The worst part of this situation was not that a crew-mate was lying on the floor in obvious pain, but rather that Clarity had started to feel cold. It started at her shoulders, and gradually grew down her back, past her legs and all the way to the tips of her toes. She was frozen in place, too scared to move or call for help. This coldness surrounded her and suffocated her and she felt her chest start to close in. She had difficulty breathing and couldn't help but start to panic. It felt she had spent hours in this cold grip, but it was probably only twenty minutes before Oreo finally walked in.

She had never heard a man squeak before, but there was no other explanation for the sound that came bursting out of her brother's mouth. She found only disappointment now; he was probably the worst person to help them. He must have realized this as he immediately stuttered a few incoherent words before stumbling out of the kitchen and sprinting down the hallway, all the while calling Axel's name.

Clarity couldn't remember them coming back into the room. The last thing she remembered was being stuck in this arctic grip that kept her frozen in place. And then there was only darkness.

* * *

><p>When Clarity next woke up, she was back in her bed. She was covered in three blankets, two sheets, and there was a closed pot that had coals in by her feet. When she finally relieved herself from the relenting heat and tumbled off the bed, she found that she was wearing at least three jerseys and a heavy jacket that looked like it was meant for trudging along in the snow. She stripped them off quickly, needing to get rid of the heat it provided.<p>

As she threw the last jersey on the floor, Oreo opened the door way and let himself in. He seemed surprised that she was up and about, and he quickly went to her to feel her forehead.

"You're burning..." He whispered, relief evident in his voice, "that's good."

"You think this is good?!" Clarity couldn't believe what he was saying. "I feel like I'm over a million degrees and you think that's good?"

Oreo straightened and nodded. "Well, before, you were cold. And not like you're just shivering cold... you were so cold you might as well have been dead. Axel couldn't feel your pulse either, so we thought the best thing to do was to warm you up. Your fingertips had been turning blue. Do you even know how freaky that was?" He asked.

"Now's the time you think something's creepy?!" She nearly screamed at him. "You should've thought that the moment you saw Pepper!"

"Pepper? What are you talking about?"

"The freezing feeling is from her and her black magic!" Clarity insisted. She was certain of it by now. It only ever happened when the cook was around.

Oreo kept silent for a long while, so she just went going. "That's not the first time either. I've felt like that at least twice before, but I thought it was just coincidence. I thought it was just something random I happened to feel, but this has convinced me. Pepper is trying to kill me with her cold grip."

"It's not possible-" Oreo started, but was interrupted immediately.

"She always asks me to catch five fish when there are four of us. I'm telling you she's using that last fish for her magic." Clarity had never been so convinced of anything in her life.

"Can you even hear what you're saying right now?" Oreo asked, placing his hands on her shoulders and pulling her closer. "Just go rest a bit. I think that made you a little out of your mind."

Clarity rested her forehead on her brother's chest, taking a deep breath. She felt like crying. Her brother couldn't even understand what she was trying to tell him. He just thought she was going crazy. Without another word, she got back into bed, kicking off the extra blankets and sheets since it was too hot.

Before Oreo left her in peace, he turned and said. "Pepper's in the other room, and she's really ill. She keeps coming and going and Axel wants to keep her in one room in case whatever she has is contagious. I don't think she can do anything, never mind magic, in her state. It's impossible."

Clarity ignored him and waited until the sound of his footsteps vanished. She quickly got out of bed again and hurried out into the hallway. She checked all the rooms by opening them slowly and peeking through. She eventually found Pepper's new room right at the end and opened the door cautiously so that only her right eye could see through the narrow space. She saw Pepper lying on the bed, looking like she was experiencing stomach problems with that way she was clutching at her stomach. She was about to go back and return to her room before something caught her eyes.

It was the blanket on the bed. It moved on its own, opening up a hole and closing again only slightly, as if someone was there with her, tucking himself into her bed to comfort her through whatever she was going through. With a start, Clarity jumped backwards. Her hands already started to shake.

With quick, frightened breaths, she ran down the hallway and burst into Oreo and Axel's shared room. She couldn't be alone after seeing that.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

I don't know if I'll update before Christmas, but if I don't, I just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays and a Merry Christmas. :D (No matter how many times I look at the calender, it doesn't feel like December. Man, what a short year.) Hope everyone has a good one!


End file.
